Mikel Arteta 's notable praise for Arsenal 's more senior stars suggests he and club legend Tony Adams share the same idea.
Ahead of Gunners' 3-1 North London derby victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, Adams raised his concerns that promising youngsters like Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka were leading the experienced members of the squad.
The pair both scored in the one-sided affair, either side of a goal by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has been criticised for failing to recapture his 2019-20 form.
Pre-match, Adams told Sky Sports : "My issue is the kids are our best players at this moment, Saka and Smith Rowe they’re not supposed to lead, we need some good experienced players and players that stay fit."
He added: "I want Arteta to stay with this group, to stop rotating there’s been so many changes and so many changes of system. Stick with this back four now and goalkeeper and go with it, run with it."
Fellow pundit Graeme Souness agreed with Adams by saying: "Arsenal are a big worry for me.
"They’re buying young players, you introduce young players into the team it’s organised, it's winning, it’s playing with a bit of confidence," the Liverpool and Scotland legend explained after all six of their summer signings were under 24.
"Tony alluded to it, they’re brining young guys in and wanting them to be main men, that’s never good.
"It concerns me, was the plan at the start of the season the way we can take this club forward is buy young players and they might be players in two, three years."
In his post-match press conference, Arteta was asked about Smith Rowe contributing a goal to the victory and in his answer, decided to raise Aubameyang's contribution.
"Well he has scored two in the last two games. It’s great," the Spaniard said. "I think today was a great example of the senior players showing big leadership standing up for the team. The likes of Auba scoring a goal.
"And then two academy players who have been raised and developed within our system coming in a big derby and doing what they’ve done - scoring two goals."
Saka, 20, himself stated that Arsenal already have the ingredients to win silverware.
"We can achieve anything, no matter what age. With age comes experience but we have a lot of experience in this squad anyway which helps us," the starlet stated.
"We have a lot of quality and enough experience to achieve a lot. We’re going to take it game by game but if we play like this we have enough quality to win trophies."
Do Arsenal still need leaders or can the young squad win trophies as they are? Comment your thoughts below.
Now the hotly-debated "process" has Gunners supporters less frustrated after three successive wins in the Premier League, leading Arteta to laud his players further.
"I think we all agree that we saw a team that convinced from the beginning, with good energy and high rhythm, with a lot of quality, great cohesion and understanding of what we wanted to do with and without the ball," he claimed.
"Then we were super efficient. That is something we have been lacking in the final third, the right pass, the shot to hit the target more and I think we did that all really well in the first half."
