Per Mertesacker has, like the rest of us, been singing the praises of Hector Bellerin.

It’s quite funny that no-one seems to care that he gave away the penalty in the second half, so impressive was the rest of his (and Arsenal’s) performance against Liverpool at the Emirates on Saturday.

Speaking after the game, the vice-captain, who has been wearing the armband in Mikel Arteta’s absence, was gushing about the youngster.

“He scored the first goal and that was vital,” the defender said.

“He’s given us a lot of energy this season. He’s stepped up because we’ve had a lot of injuries but he gave us such a great energy and he’s capable of producing great performances like today.

“To put in such a good performance in front of our fans makes me delighted. I’m proud of our performance because we we kept going. It was a hard-fought win in the end and we deserved it with the way we played.”

While I don’t think many people expect Hector to keep his place when Mathieu Debuchy is fully matchfit, his development this season certainly offers the boss a nice headache for the near future.

The hope will surely be that both players push each other and, at a top club challenging for major honours, that’s exactly what you want – two players in every position that are good enough to be starters.

Now that everyone is fit (sort off) we’re really starting to see what an amazing squad Wenger has assembled.