Photo: Mikel Arteta calls up 18-year-old Arsenal talent to first-team training before Lens clash

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Arsenal were hard at work in training at London Colney yesterday, and young Reuell Walters was spotted among the senior group.

Mikel Arteta has never been shy to give young players an opportunity. He often calls up talented academy players to rub shoulders with first-team stars, and Walters has been around quite a few times. He was there yesterday as well, ahead of Arsenal‘s Champions League clash against Lens.

Mikel Arteta calls up Reuell Walters to Arsenal training

Arsenal have a number of exciting young players in their academy at the moment, and Reuell Walters is right up there with the best.

The 18-year-old is a hugely talented player. Like Takehiro Tomiyasu, he can play anywhere across the backline, and he’s viewed by everyone at Hale End as a huge prospect.

Walters has impressed in pre-season for Arsenal, but the youngster hasn’t got an opportunity with the first team just yet.

That, however, shouldn’t be too far away, and the fact that Arteta has been calling him up to senior training sessions suggests that he sees something in him.

Just yesterday, in Arsenal’s final training session ahead of their trip to France to face Lens in the Champions League, Walters was spotted fighting for the ball with Bukayo Saka.

He has already wowed Oleksandr Zinchenko

Oleksandr Zinchenko spent numerous years at Manchester City, where he rubbed shoulders with some of the best players in the Premier League.

The Ukrainian knows a brilliant young player when he sees one, and when he was asked to name one academy graduate at Arsenal who has impressed him, he quickly named Walters.

“I like so much the centre-back, Reuell,” he said on Rio Ferdinand’s YouTube channel. “The quality he has, he’s aggressive.

“I swear to god, once he pushed Gabriel Jesus shoulder to shoulder, it’s not easy to push Gabi, yeah. He was confident on the ball after. He kept the ball well. Wow, he impressed me the most.”