Photo: Arsenal academy player makes Arteta look small at Colney

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A smiling Mikel Arteta put his Arsenal players through their paces on Tuesday afternoon.

The former Arsenal midfielder even joined in on the session, as he has been doing lately.

At 5 foot 9, Arteta was never the biggest player to pull on the Gunners’ shirt during his four-year spell in North London under Arsene Wenger.

But there’s a young and up-and-coming player who makes the Spaniard look far smaller than he actually is.

One of the more striking pictures of Tuesday’s session at Colney was 20-year-old academy goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo – who stands at 6 foot 6 – absolutely towering over his coach.

Here’s some stills:

Leno replacement?

Arteta and Edu successfully convinced Okonkwo to sign a new contract at Arsenal this past summer, amid speculation he could leave the capital for other opportunities.

And it looks a good decision because the route to the first team isn’t too congested.

Okay Arsenal have two very good goalkeepers in the form of Aaron Ramsdale and Bernd Leno, but the latter is linked with a move away in January.

If that happens, it’ll be between Okonkwo and Karl Hein to fight it out to become Ramsdale’s deputy, providing the Emirates Stadium side don’t sign a replacement for Leno.

Okonkwo was named on the bench for the 5-0 Premier League defeat by Manchester City in August, indicating that the 20-year-old might be a little ahead of Hein in Arteta’s thinking.

Physically he’s a massive player – as the images show – but he could be very big in football terms too at some point in the future.