Kieran Tierney has hardly played for Arsenal this season due to injury but the Glasgow boy has certainly made himself a favourite with the fans.
News this week that players had to take Tierney aside to tell him to tone it down in training was met with hoots of approval from Arsenal fans. Not because they wanted him to take it easier, but because that’s been exactly the problem at Arsenal for too long – too many doing just that.
It doesn’t seem like he listened, either, if his performances are anything to go by.
This weekend, ahead of his first North London derby, he’s given a brief insight into his exciting life, down in the big smoke.
“Coming to London has been a huge change for me,” Tierney said. “I’m a home boy who has always stayed with my parents and now I’ve come to a new country and a massive city.
“People back home ask me ‘What’s London like?’ But I have no idea because I’ve never been into the city. I train, I work hard, I go home to recover and I train the next day. It’s a simple life and I put everything into football.
“Signing for Arsenal was the hardest decision of my life, leaving the club I had been at for 15 years of my life.”
Quite possibly the best left-back to play the game, Ashley Cole, was full of praise for the Scot after his performance against Leicester midweek.
Cole said: “I think he’s been solid. He came to Arsenal with high expectations; he was brilliant at Celtic.
“He came carrying an injury and now he is starting to get back to fitness and is the star of this Arsenal defence.”
Cole added: “He has top qualities, he can play into the striker, join attacks well, he has the quality of pass and he can defend in 1 v 1 defence.
“He doesn’t like to get beat, he isn’t happy when crosses go in so I think for Arsenal he is a great player. He can improve, but so far he has been brilliant.”