Martin Keown has detailed how Kieran Tierney has been told to calm down in Arsenal training sessions, with his aggression leading to the comments being made.
The Scotland international has become a fan-favourite since his arrival from Celtic last summer, despite struggling with injury issues during his debut campaign in the Premier League.
His no-nonsense attitude has made him a hit and, while it seems words may have been shared in training, Keown believes Tierney's attitude is something the entire squad should replicate.
"I'm hearing that Tierney has been told to slow down in training because some of the players were frightened with how aggressive he was," he told TalkSport.
"No - that's exactly what you want in the camp and I'm pretty certain if you look at the league champions this weekend, Liverpool, I bet than in their training sessions the manager has had to pull them back a bit because they're so competitive. That's what you need.
"He was told 'you need to slow down young man, you're too aggressive' but I think that actually he doesn't, it needs to be harnessed, of course, as you don't want a player to go too mad in training but what you want is everybody following that same way of behaviour.
"I can tell you now, when we trained back in the day in 2004, the training was just as difficult as the games because they were so competitive and you didn't want to be the weak link, you've gotta have that edge and you've got to have winners.
"When it's competitive from within, you'll go on to be successful and that to me looks like what he [Mikel Arteta] is building again. It blew up in their face a bit against Brighton with Matteo Guendouzi, when comments were made.
"I think it was very obvious, publicly obvious, that some of the players had their priorities wrong but Arteta is addressing that now. It's only the beginning and it's game by game."
