Petr Čech surprised Arsenal youth star Vlad Dragomir by speaking to him in Romanian, when the pair met in first-team training.

Dragomir is a talented attacking midfielder from Romania, and the 18-year-old has stepped up a gear for the u23s in recent weeks, as many of his teammates get a taste of first team action. Vlad scored two and assisted one in his three matches in October.

As a result of his good performances, the midfielder has been spending more time with the Arsenal first-team, and told Romanian website DIGIsport that Čech surprised him by knowing a bit of his language.

He explained: “I had training last week with the first team and I heard a player behind me ask ‘how are you’ in Romanian. I was very surprised. It was Petr Čech. I was a little amazed how he knew Romanian, but then he started to tell me that he played with (Adrian) Mutu.”

Mutu played for Chelsea back in the 2003/04 season, and he scored 10 goals in 27 appearances before being released by the club for failing a recreational drug test.

Although he went on to join Juventus, Mutu clearly spent enough time with the Blues to teach Petr a word or two of his language.

It must help a young player getting his first taste of the senior team environment, to have someone like Čech making the effort to learn where he is from and say something in his language.

Hopefully the rest of the team are just as accommodating to Vlad, helping him make a smooth transition to the first-team when he gets the chance.