Arsenal Summer Signing Makes Bizarre Age Claim and Insists He Isn't Worried About Slow Start

Arsenal summer signing Stephan Lichtsteiner has admitted that he is unused to playing second fiddle in his position, having come from playing over 200 league games in seven seasons at Juventus. 

The Swiss defender has started the season as Hector Bellerin's backup under new Gunners boss Unai Emery, but insisted in an interview with Sportal that he's willing to wait for the chance to impress despite being not being his club's first choice for the first time since breaking through at Grasshopper just after the turn of the century. 

“It is quite unusual for me to be a substitute," he admitted. " Three games in a row [on the bench], that’s never happened to me. If you have achieved a lot in your career, you have high expectations of yourself and want to play. But I also know that I will get the chance to play games.”

More than his professed willingness to keep plugging away in the background though, it was Lichtsteiner's words on his 'real age' which could endear him most to his new club's fans. 

Inadvertently echoing one of the fanbase's most infamous social media moments, the 34-year-old defender insisted that he is more like a 28-year-old in his body. 

“If I have to admit that I can not keep the level of the last few years," he said, "then it is time [to retire]. But then I will not only resign from the Swiss national team, but finish my career. Based purely on performance data I have the physicality of a 28-year-old.”

28? 29? Or...34?