Granit Xhaka believes Bukayo Saka is showing all the attributes to build on his bright start to life in the Arsenal first team.
In just his fifth senior appearance Saka scored one and assisted two others in Arsenal's 3-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League, winning rave reviews from pundits and from his head coach Unai Emery.
Speaking after the game Saka insisted that he was going to keep his feet on the ground after a dream start to life in the Gunners' first team, hailing the influence of his father, assistant manager Freddie Ljungberg and even Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Arsenal squad have been impressed by Saka since he stepped up to the first team and the 18-year-old found his Instagram page bombarded by supportive comments from team-mates on Thursday night. Still Xhaka has been impressed by the lack of ego the youngster has displayed.
Writing in the matchday programme, Xhaka said: "What a way to score your first goal for Arsenal! I was straight over to his once I saw the ball hit the back of the net and we ran over to celebrate with the fans.
"I really like Bukayo as a player and as a person. He's respectful, very hardworking and always willing to learn. When you're young and breaking into the team, you absolutely must have that. If you don't you can come unstuck really quickly.
"But Bukayo is grounded, he's on a good path and I'm sure there's much more to come from him."
Saka is one of a string of highly-rated youngsters Arsenal have been keen to blood early in the season with the Gunners sanctioning the departure of first-team wide options Danny Welbeck, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi to make room for their Hale End graduates.
Meanwhile Joe Willock has impressed in central midfield, with Xhaka saying of the 20-year-old: "What I like about Joe is how quickly he's adapted to first-team football.
"When you watch him and play alongside him you quickly forget just how young he still is. Nothing phases him, he just stays relaxed and gets on with what he needs to do."
