Arsenal icon Charlie Nicholas played alongside some top-class players during his spell at Highbury in the 1980s, including some club legends.
The attacker made 155 appearances for Arsenal across five years, scoring 36 goals, but making himself a hero by scoring both goals in a 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the 1987 League Cup final.
Nicholas arrived at Arsenal as a highly-rated 21-year-old from Celtic, joining Terry Neill’s side at Highbury, and eventually played under George Graham.
The Scotland International played alongside some Arsenal legends, including defender Tony Adams and midfielder David ‘Rocky’ Rocastle, but he has now claimed there was one teammate who was even better when they played together.
Charlie Nicholas names Kenny Sansom as best-ever Arsenal teammate
Speaking on the Football’s Greatest Podcast, Nicholas claimed that former Arsenal and England left-back Kenny Sansom was the best player he ever appeared alongside when listing the best players he had appeared with or played against.
“Physically Kenny wasn’t really that aggressive, but he had tremendously quick feet. He used to stoop into challenges, trying to toe-poke the ball off you, because he could do that, he was actually gliding by you, so in a way it was like a dribble, that’s how he used to treat the opposition, but when you played against him in training, you could beat him,” he stated.
“Within three seconds he was back in front of you again. He just had this remarkable turning ability, he was so quick in the turn, lovely left foot, great, great left foot, didn’t have a right foot at all but but loved bombing forward.
“He was so enthusiastic in training everyday, he was a stunning footballer.
“I genuinely did feel that he was a world-class footballer. He felt that way every day when you play against him or play with him, and just a little maverick of an individual, who was causing his own issues a bit like myself, but at the same time, the desire and I think when it proved when he went to England – I don’t think England for that spell, could have done without him.”
Arsenal’s greatest ever left-backs
Sansom is certainly up there with Arsenal’s and England’s best ever left-backs, but Nicholas has now admitted that the emergence of Invincible Ashley Cole, who later joined Chelsea in controversial circumstances, was one that stood out to him.
READ MORE: All Arsenal legends in the Premier League Hall of Fame from Henry to Wenger
“There was no replacement really for Kenny so he kept 90-odd caps. I think it was only when I saw Ashley Cole after two or three seasons, and I thought there was something who was finally replacing that type of player, and Kenny had so much ability both defensively and attacking,” Nicholas added.
“I thought he was a world-class left-back in every way shape or form,” he stated of Sansom.
Nacho Monreal was arguably Arsenal’s most consistent left-back of the Emirates era, but Sansom was the best of the 1980s, and Cole the best of the 2000s.