Mikel Arteta calls up 17-year-old who ‘relishes pushing forward’ to training ahead of Arsenal v West Ham

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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is well known for including younger players in his training sessions and it looks like he’s at it again prior to facing West Ham.

The Gunners take on the Hammers today looking to keep pace with Man City and Liverpool at the summit and go into the game in high spirits after seeing off Jurgen Klopp’s team last weekend.

Of course, to get the win, Arteta will need all his Arsenal players fit and firing from the get-go.

And with training ramped up this week ahead of the clash, Arteta appears to have opted to include some exciting youngsters in the training sessions to challenge his first-teamers.

One of this new faces to be spotted in the latest training images from Getty is teenage left-back Cam’ron Ismail. The 17-year-old has not been seen as much as some others – such as Ethan Nwaneri – this season but makes an appearance this week, challenging Bukayo Saka for the ball.

Who is Arsenal youngster Cam’ron Ismail

A 17-year-old left-back, Ismail has been with the Gunners since the under-15s and is now trying to make his way in the first-team squad at London Colney.

Indeed, he is said to be very much in the modern era of full-backs. Arsenal youth website Jorge Bird’s Arsenal Youth has a glowing review of Ismail, picking up on his attacking tenendcies.

“A talented left-back, Ismail joined Arsenal as an U15 player and has now progressed to sign scholarship terms. The youngster relishes pushing forward and is capable of delivering dangerous crosses. Ismail featured for the U21s while he was still a schoolboy and was also involved with the U18s,” it states.

Quite whether Ismail will be part of the squad that takes on West Ham today is unknown. Given we’ve seen young players take part in training all season, it’s unlikely.

But Ismail, it seems, is at least making an impression at first-team level and he’ll be hoping to kick on from here and impress further.