Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has hailed the form of Arsenal defender Rob Holding.

Holding, 25, nearly joined Newcastle on a season-long loan last summer because Arsenal had a wealth of centre-halves and it was hard to see him getting a look in.

But six months later, Holding is now one of the first names on the teamsheet.

Speaking ahead of Saturday afternoon's FA Cup clash against Newcastle, Arteta said: “It was almost a year ago when he came back from his injury. He had a period when he did not play.

“When you compare how he has evolved from there to now, in a year's time, it is incredible.

“It is down to him, how professional he is, how much he wants to learn, how much he puts into every training session and then his character and his personality.

“He is growing in every aspect. I am really happy with him. It is true that in the summer he came to me because we had a large amount of central defenders and he was not sure about how many minutes he was going to have.

“But we stopped him going anywhere because we knew he was going to be an important player for us."