Azeez - I'm buzzing, I love this club

Miguel Azeez's hard work has paid off.

The 18-year-old midfielder has been with us since he was just five, and on Thursday night he got his reward with a first-team debut against Dundalk in the Europa League.

 

Azeez became the 878th player to represent our men's team - shortly after Ben Cottrell became the 877th - and he spoke exclusively to Arsenal.com after the game.

 

Here's what Miguel said:

 

on making his debut..

I'm buzzing. I'm happy and overjoyed with the experience. I'm so grateful that I was able to get the experience and all the hard work has paid off today.



on how it felt to be told he was coming on...

I just wanted to play my game because that's why I'm here. I didn't want to do anything that I'm not used to doing. I just wanted to see the game out and make sure we won and put in a good performance.



on what Arsenal fans can expect to see from him...

I will play with passion because I love the club. I've been here since the age of five so I'm an Arsenal fan through and through and obviously, I just want to give something back to the fans and play my best games every single day.



on the large number of homegrown players coming through at the moment...

A lot of us have grown up together, playing for the first team was our dream so it gives us the motivation to try and play together, play as a unit and put good performances on the pitch.



on sharing his debut with Ben Cottrell...

We went to the same school so for us it's a dream come true, it's what we've been working towards. He was a year older than me so we were never in the same school team but [our team] would have been decent.



on if win means he'll get more opportunities...

Hopefully, whenever the manager wants to put me in I'm just going to take my opportunities. I'll keep training hard, keep making sure that I'm in the managers head and play my game whenever I get the opportunity.