Mikel Arteta has been warned that new signing Martin Zubimendi may not be a ready-made fit for Arsenal ’s midfield. The Gunners finally confirmed the long-awaited signing of Zubimendi on the weekend, with the midfielder joining from Real Sociedad for £51million.

Such praise underlines why Arsenal have invested more than £50million to sign Zubimendi from Real Sociedad. With Jorginho and Thomas Partey departing, the club are overhauling the base of their midfield and they first started looking for a world-class No6 a year ago.

At half-time of last year’s European Championship final against England, Spain manager Luis de la Fuente had a simple message for his players. “Let’s be ourselves,” he told his team, in a speech filmed by Amazon’s documentary-makers.