Even if Petr Cech has been the only senior arrival, Arsenal have been very busy this summer in the transfer market at youth level.

There’s been some serious recruitment to boost the ranks including The Jeff, Donyell Malen, Yassin Fortune, Romanian Vlad Dragomir, Cypriot Kostas Pileas and Jordi Osei-Tutu from Reading.

The latest to come on board is exciting attacking midfielder Ismael Bennacer from Arles-Avignon, and he revealed that Arsene Wenger allayed his fears about being swallowed up in a big club by telling him he thought he has what it takes to succeed at Arsenal.

“I was a little worried in my head about going abroad,” he said. “I have never left home before, I thought about staying in France in order to accumulate game time too.

“That is what made me a little scared at the beginning, but when I saw the condition of the training centre, I realised that there isn’t a better place for me to progress. It is up to me to prove myself, they gave me a 5 year contract so they must have confidence in me.”

And his talk with the Arsenal manager is what appears to have convinced him to join – especially as reports from June suggested he was on the verge of joining Man City.

“He told me that he was happy for me, that he thought I had the potential to succeed here.”

He also refers to Arsenal as “the most French of the English clubs”, so a little home away from home, perhaps.