Arsenal’s Thomas Vermaelen: I’m learning a lot from Steve Bould

Thomas Vermaelen has hailed the impact of Arsenal’s new assistant manager Steve Bould at The Emirates.

The Gunners legend was named as Arsene Wenger’s number two this summer following the retirement of Pat Rice at the end of last season.

And Vermaelen has been left impressed by Bould’s attention to detail and defensive philosophy.

“Steve is really good to work with, especially for defenders as he has been a defender himself,” Vermaelen told the club’s website.

“He knows what it is all about and gives us a lot of tips. He works a lot on the shape of the team and that is very important, so I am very happy he came to work with the first team.

“He is very focused on details. A lot of players, because we are getting older, we know how to play. But he looks at details and the shape of your body and to be honest I am learning a lot from him.”

Wenger has recruited Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla during the summer transfer window as the Gunners look to improve on their third-place finish last season.

Vermaelen is impressed with the way Arsenal’s squad is starting to take shape. “The squad looks strong,” he added.

“There are not a lot of injuries at the moment, apart from Bacary [Sagna] and Jack [Wilshere] – for the rest it looks good.

“Everyone looks fit and sharp and it is good that we have so many new players as well.

“At the beginning of last season I was injured with the same problem I had before.

“For the rest of the season I played quite a lot of games so I was quite pleased with that, but of course I want to do better this year. I want to perform better as well.”