Why Vincent Kompany believes ex-Man City teammate & current Arsenal star is a good inspiration for his Burnley players

Kompany will reunite with the Ukrainian when he takes his Burnley side to the Emirates Stadium this afternoon.

The 26-year-old played with Kompany at Man City before making the move to North London last summer.

“Zinchenko is a good example,” Kompany said ahead of today’s game. “At the beginning in the first couple of years, a lot of people would have betted against him, right?

“He wasn’t necessarily a full-back, he would play as an attacking midfielder, his loan spell in Holland wasn’t really successful, so what was he going to do in Man City’s squad?

“But behind the scenes what people didn’t see was that he was one of the most relentless, hard working players I’ve ever played with.

“When you bring that to the table, it becomes really difficult to know where you’re going to end up because there’s no limit. If you have that kind of workrate, you will see people off.

“To see him now, what has he won, the Premier League four of five times? To become a leader in a new club somewhere else, for what other people said about him at the start of his career, I can only use him as an example for a lot of players that we have. Not that I do it every day, but the concept of hard work.

“I can only commend him for what he’s achieved so far in his career.”