Fabrice Muamba trained alongside an array of legends during his time in north London and was quickly touted to become 'the next Patrick Vieira'.
Speaking exclusively to our 'In Lockdown' podcast, our former midfielder revealed how he dealt with the tag and what it was like working alongside the World Cup winner.
"I was fortunate enough that when I was in the academy, Patrick was there," Muamba said. "To be fair to Patrick, he was very sound towards me, he always gave me advice.
"I can recall the first time I went to train with the first team with all those guys, it was like a dream come true. You'd go out there and see everybody that you'd hear of. They are on the same pitch as you and calling your name. They stopped calling me Fabrice and just started calling me Fab and I just thought, 'Wow this is a life experience.'
"For me, I never got the chance to play with [Vieira], but training with him was an honour. I never put pressure on myself to be the next Patrick Vieira, I just wanted to be Fabrice. I wanted to make my own way.
"I moulded my game around Patrick. I was fortunate enough that when I was in my first year scholarship, they used to give us a DVD of an Arsenal player. Whoever played in your position you watched the DVD of how they played. I always got Patrick's DVD so I watched what he did on the pitch, how he'd go about his stuff when he got the ball, when he doesn't have the ball, how he behaves.
"That motivated me to say, 'I want something similar to this or even better than this if I have the opportunity.' It also gave me that desire to really want to play at the top level."
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