Thomas Vermaelen admitted recently that he still watches Arsenal matches, despite now being a Barcelona player, and described our recent 2-1 win over Leicester as both ‘stressful’ and ‘beautiful’.

After signing for the La Liga giants in 2014, Vermaelen hasn’t had the best luck. He got seriously injured almost as soon as he arrived in Spain and spent pretty much his entire first year sidelined. This season, despite being out of action with a thigh problem for a little while, he’s made 17 appearances in all competitions.

Although he’s finding it hard to get a full game under his belt, you’d expect as much from such a competitive team.

498790316 thomas vermaelen of fc barcelona runs with gettyimages
BARCELONA, SPAIN – NOVEMBER 24: Thomas Vermaelen of FC Barcelona runs with the ball during the UEFA Champions League Group E match between FC Barcelona and AS Roma at Camp Nou stadium on November 24, 2015 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

Speaking recently, the Belgium international admitted that he still keeps up with our matches.

“I watch a lot of Arsenal games because I have warm memories of the club, and because they are a very attractive team,” Vermaelen said to The Telegraph.

“I watched the Leicester game last week, it was very stressful but these are the most beautiful games to win.

“Now the title race is wide open, if they hadn’t won it would have been more difficult but now it’s on. I always said at the start that Arsenal had a big chance to win it.”

I genuinely miss Vermaelen. I took an instant liking to him when he signed for us in 2009 and even though he never could quite replicate his first season with us, I never harboured any negative feelings towards him.

I was sad to see him go but understand his reasoning.