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Photo: Arteta calls up midfield talent likened to Ozil to Arsenal training ahead of Spurs
The international break is finally over and Arsenal have a huge fixture to look forward to this weekend.
Saturday’s early Premier League kickoff sees Mikel Arteta’s Gunners face Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal sit at the summit of the table and will hope to consolidate their position at the top.
The Gunners will take on a Spurs outfit hoping to leapfrog them into first place.
Arteta has been putting his Arsenal players through their paces ahead of the North London derby.
In the latest training photos the Gunners media team put out, a number of academy players could be spotted.
One of those taking part in the session was Matt Smith, a player who has drawn comparisons to Mesut Ozil.
The 21-year-old is a player that some Arsenal fans will be somewhat familiar with.
Smith famously made the FA Cup final squad in 2020 ahead of Ozil and Matteo Guendouzi.
The midfielder the Arsenal ranks aged eight and currently plays for their Under-21s.
He has also taken in three loan stints while on the Gunners’ books – at Swindon, Charlton and Doncaster.
‘A superb passer’
The Arsenal has described him as a ‘technically gifted central midfielder with an impressive passing range’.
As per , coaches at Arsenal have deemed Smith a ‘composed midfielder with an eye for a pass’.
They have also described him as a player who ‘typically looks to operate as a deep-lying playmaker, tasked with controlling the tempo of games and picking out runners in the final third.’
Football.london added: ‘Arteta should be taking notice of Smith. He is a player with a great future ahead of him and he is already making all of the right noises at youth-level.
‘Mesut Ozil’s has recently struggled in the role of being Arsenal’s architect to make things happen and with Smith’s creative ability on the ball he may see himself as a long-term successor for the German.’
Meanwhile, Arsenal youth team expert has called Smith a ‘superb passer’, and the player has even been to Ozil on Twitter.