Sat on the bench on Tuesday night for the FA Cup defeat of Hull City, Chris Willock is edging closer to a full Arsenal debut.

A young attacking midfielder, Willock is incredibly exciting to watch and is clearly in the manager’s mind, we can expect to see him feature heavily in pre-season over the summer with many of our stars at Euro 2016.

Almost two years ago, just as the World Cup ended, Willock played against Borehamwood in pre-season at the age of 16 and is still very much in Arsène Wenger’s plans.

“Chris is a very gifted player with natural strength and natural talent,” the boss has said to the official matchday programme ahead of Arsenal’s FA Cup quarter-final against Watford on Sunday. “He has what you do not find very easily.

“He can have a go at people, can get past people in one on ones.

“I believe that he has the needed character when he has his back to the wall to always respond in a very strong way. That’s a very important quality, to be able to play under pressure.”

With Arsenal facing Barcelona in midweek, Wenger may even be tempted to rest some senior players on Sunday and Willock could find himself on the bench again.Over the course of the

Over the course of the season we have seen Alex Iwobi take his opportunities in cup games well, and Jeff Reine-Adelaide is on the brink of doing the same with some impressive cameos from the bench. Willock is surely the next in line.

“Overall I would be very comfortable to play him now but of course, there is a lot of competition for places because there are players like Walcott, Alexis and Welbeck in front of him at the moment.

“If I had to play him then I would have no fear in doing so. Next season I think he will be a player who will get to feature in the team.”