‘My Dad has a spreadsheet of all my stats!’

After joining us from Fulham in July, Mika Biereth has made a fast start to life in north London. 

Our 18-year-old striker was the star of the show for the under-23s against Chelsea on Sunday afternoon, scoring a hat-trick in a 6-1 victory at Kingsmeadow.

 - Click here to get the official matchday programme

The emphatic performance secured our fourth win in five Premier League 2 games this season and Biereth is delighted to be a part of his new side. 

"I’ve only been at Arsenal for a couple of months but I’m really enjoying it here," he told the official matchday programme. "Thanks to the coaching staff and my team-mates, I’ve been able to settle in really quickly. 

"It’s been amazing so far. Everything is just done properly – even down to the canteen, where the food is packaged up nicely. It’s a really good environment to continue learning and developing with my football.

"Before I joined, it was important for me to get a sense of what the club is about. When you look at Arsenal, you see a lot of youth coming through, both historically and now. You can tell that youth is at the forefront of the agenda, which meant a lot to me when I decided to come here.

"I’m really grateful to all my team-mates too, because they’ve all helped me to acclimatise. Joel Lopez – what a man! He’s been brilliant, as have Hubert, Alex Kirk and Omar Rekik. But honestly, all the lads have been good to me and made it really easy to settle in."

Before joining us in the summer, Biereth played the majority of his football for Fulham's Under-18s, but has quickly adapted to life in our under-23s - where he's scored four goals in five games this season.

Despite scoring 21 goals and providing 13 assists in 22 games last term, our new man isn't getting caught up on the numbers just yet.

"To be honest, I don’t get too hung up with stats because I know that strikers go through hot patches and cold patches,” he said.

"It’s important to stay balanced. I just go into every game hoping to score and then over the course of the season, those numbers tend to tally up anyway. Sometimes you can go three or four games without scoring, but then end up with a hat-trick in the following match. I just try to remain level-headed with that.

"It’s funny because, while I’m not overly big on the numbers, my dad definitely is. In fact, he’s kept stats on me since my first Sunday league game! He’s got stats on everything – even down to the percentage of goals I’ve been involved in. 

"He keeps an in-depth Excel spreadsheet – it’s full of stats and goes all the way back to the beginning. As I’ve developed, my stats have become more official, so he doesn’t need to keep as many anymore, because they’re already taken care of. He just Googles it now – it means he’s got a bit more time on his hands."