Thomas Vermaelen hailed Carl Jenkinson's remarkable rise at Arsenal, backing the young full-back to get better and better.
Jenkinson has been one of Arsenal's standout players this season, hardly putting a foot wrong in the right-back position. The lifelong Arsenal fan, who moved to the Emirates from Charlton Athletic at the beginning of last season, had a brilliant game against the English Premier League champions Manchester City at the Etihad last Sunday, and was one of the most talked about players on Twitter.
Deputising for the experienced Bakary Sagna, who is out injured, the 20-year-old has hardly looked like a player with only a few top-flight games under his belt, and Arsenal captain Vermaelen believes his teammate will keep improving.
"Carl had another fine game on Sunday," Vermaelen said in the Arsenal's official Matchday Program. "I even heard that he was trending on Twitter!"
"It's really important for any player to keep improving -- there's nothing worse than standing still, and it's really obvious that Carl is making big steps every single week.
"He's playing better and better, and I'm very pleased for him."
Vermaelen also hailed the team's bench strength, with the likes of Aaron Ramsey and Laurent Koscielny putting in brilliant performances against City, despite finding starting places hard to come by. "You need plenty of depth, and Laurent was one of the key players in our team last year -- we all know what a quality player he is," Vermaelen said of his fellow central defender. "If he's not been playing, we must have been doing very well.
"The same goes for Aaron, who also came in and performed well. You could see he had a lot of energy in his game and was keen to prove himself.
"Again, we know what quality he has and he is a big part of what we are doing."
Meanwhile, Johan Djourou, who captained the Arsenal side in their 6-1 League Cup win over Coventry City, has tipped youngster Serge Gnabry to have a bright future. Gnabry came on in the final 20 minutes of the game on Wednesday and showed abundance of talent, with many comparing him to another of Arsenal's bright young midfielders - Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
"We have a lot of great young guys coming through and one of them is Serge Gnabry," he said.
"He's a very good young player, really tricky, and someone with a big future ahead of him. He has all the attributes to become a very good winger or No. 10, and has the right character too.
"If you have that, and don't get carried away, you have a great chance."
