Arsenal centre-back Pablo Mari heaps praise on "unbelievable" David Luiz

David Luiz

Pablo Mari has called new Arsenal team-mate David Luiz an "unbelievable player" as he reflects on his first few weeks at the club.

The Gunners signed Mari on a season-long loan from Flamengo in the January transfer window.

The north London outfit have the option to sign the centre-back, who was previously on the books at Manchester City, on a permanent deal in the summer.

Mari has made an accomplished start to life at the Emirates Stadium and singled out one of his new team-mates for special praise.

"We know that David is an unbelievable player," he told Arsenal Player.

"He's had a good career and is a good football player, and also playing with him is so easy. These two games with him in the starting XI were nice because I only focused on my job and I didn't need to focus on other jobs.

"This is easy when you want to have a big game. We know he's an experienced player and sometimes when you need to do different things in the last minutes, like when you need to make calls or something like this, he can do it. For us, it's easy to play with him."

Mari made his Arsenal debut in the FA Cup victory over Portsmouth, before making his maiden Premier League appearance against West Ham a few days later.

And the Spaniard says he relished his first outing in one of the biggest leagues in the world.

"For me, it was an unbelievable day," he said. "It was a nice night for everybody and we won the game, which is the most important thing. Also my feeling on the pitch was really nice.

"With our fans, with our team, in our home, I think I had everything there to enjoy it. I enjoyed that game a lot and I hope I'm going to play the next games to feel the same with our team-mates and also for the club.

"The fans did a little bit of a song for me when I was named in the starting XI, and I'm so happy about that. This means they are feeling happy with me, with my job, so this is nice. I'm going to try to do my best in all the games, to win games, to get points.

"This is the most important thing, to win games, because we want to move up the table."

Arsenal's top-four ambitions have been placed on hold after the Premier League was suspended until April 4 due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

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Greg Lea

Greg Lea is a freelance football journalist who's filled in wherever FourFourTwo needs him since 2014. He became a Crystal Palace fan after watching a 1-0 loss to Port Vale in 1998, and once got on the scoresheet in a primary school game against Wilfried Zaha's Whitehorse Manor (an own goal in an 8-0 defeat).