Unai Emery has hailed Freddie Ljungberg as the "perfect" addition to his Arsenal coaching staff after a summer reshuffle at the Emirates Stadium.
Ljungberg and Steve Bould swapped jobs before the start of the new season with the Swede leaving his role as Under-23s head coach to join Juan Carlos Carcedo as an assistant to Emery.
His job swap was partly predicated on the Arsenal hierarchy's desire to add some of Hale End's top youngsters to Emery's squad and there are already early signs of Ljungberg's influence paying dividend with Reiss Nelson and Joe Willock having started both of the first two games of the season.
Early signs at Arsenal show that Ljungberg is embracing his role and is keenly involved in pre-match training whilst Emery himself has been embraced by the impact of the former Gunners star on his close-knit coaching setup.
"He worked last year with the U23s, we were very close, speaking about the club and young players," Emery said. "The club decided to change with Steve Bould as a coach of the U23s and Freddie with us.
"It's perfect. He helps me a lot. His spirit is very good.
"He's a Gunner! We are very happy with him.
"He is an assistant like Carcedo, Pablo Villanueva, like another. Usually tactically and technically we are working as a four.
"With the young players he has an advantage because he knows them. The communication with them is through me and also through Freddie. We have communicated a lot with him."
Ljungberg proved to be a hugely popular head coach among Arsenal's youngsters last season, implementing an attacking brand of football and offering direct insight to the likes of Joe Willock and Bukayo Saka that saw them emerge as serious options for Unai Emery.
"It's a bit surreal working with a legend like Freddie," Emile Smith Rowe told football.london during the club's US tour last month. "You can take on a lot from him and I'm excited to work with him again.
"All the young players are because we had him with the U23s. We're privileged to work with him.
"He's given the lads a lot of information on working with Unai, he's trying to help the young boys make the step up. He's been there, he knows what it likes, so it's great to work with him."
