Mesut Ozil has hailed the quality of a quartet of Arsenal's brightest youngsters, pronouncing the club "lucky" to have Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah, Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith Rowe in their ranks.
There has been a concerted attempt by Arsenal head coach Unai Emery to make the most of a talented crop of youngsters during the pre-season tour of the USA and they offered a tantalising glimpse of what they could achieve in a 2-1 win over Bayern Munich in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.
Eddie Nketiah struck just before time to claim victory for the Gunners whilst Joe Willock was perhaps the stand-out performer in the match, flourishing against a midfield that included such high-profile names as Thiago Alcantara and Leon Goretzka.
Ozil was similarly impressive in a hard-running, inventive frontline along with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette but it was the young guns who stole the show, rightly so in the German's opinion.
He said: "Right now we have a lot of young players and yesterday Joe Willock plays with us, he really showed his quality and Eddie everyone knows Eddie in the team.
"He is fighting hard and wants to help us and Reiss. He had a lot of experience in Germany. He played very well during the season over there so those people, those kind of players, especially young players will help us a lot.
"Don't forget Emile. He is a little bit injured so he is coming back, we know his quality as well. At Arsenal I think we are lucky to have those young players."
The youngsters are not the only players set to swell Emery's ranks in the coming weeks. Though he is expected to miss the start of the new season it will not be long before Hector Bellerin is available for Arsenal.
Bellerin has been sidelined since January with an injured cruciate ligament and is expected to miss the opening game of the season away to Newcastle.
"He is looking good," Ozil said of Bellerin. "He is working hard. He is happy, excited to come back.
"He really works hard and everyone knows Hector's quality so we as a team hope he will be fit as soon as possible and he can enjoy to play football again."
