The Young Socceroos' energetic performance in midfield during the second half of last week's 2-0 friendly loss against the Gunners caught the eye of many observers, including his coach.

Zuvela, a former Sydney United youngster, is now in his fourth season with the Sky Blues youth team and his recent showing could see him figure in Arnold's senior team calculations ahead of the upcoming A-League season.

With Milos Dimitrijevic leaving the club in the off-season, Zuvela could provide the Sky Blues cover for current midfield duo Joshua Brillante and Brandon O’Neill.

Zuvela told FourFourTwo that his main aim over the next 12 months is to graduate from Sydney’s youth team and become a fully-fledged professional footballer.

"I'd like to hope so," he said. "I've been there for a while. I'm on the lookout to make the squad and I'll see where it takes me but it’s up to the boss. I can only improve from now.

“My goal for this season is to finish off with a first team contract nothing more, nothing less and when I'm up there to do well."

Other Sydney FC youth team players who managed to get decent game time against Arsenal included striker Charles Lokolingoy and left back Nicola Kuleski.

In fact, seven other Sydney FC youngsters featured in the Arsenal friendly and Arnold believes the Premier League giants provided his young chargers with a chance to measure themselves against the best.

"It was a great opportunity for the young boys to see where they are at," he said

"A lot of the players have dreams and aspirations to go overseas but when they see that type of quality, they go, 'Wow maybe I'm not ready yet. I need to be a bit more patient and I've got a lot more work to do on my game before I go anywhere.'

"So, it was a great experience for them. Young Chris Zuvela when he came on was very good so overall, I am happy."

While Zuvela will take a lot of self-belief from playing against his idols, the skilful midfielder believes his own performance can be improved upon.

"I can always do better," he said. "I had a lot of nerves before I got on the pitch. But once you are on field you just focus on what your next pass is and you forget all the things on the outside and you just focus on doing your job.

"Ever since I was young and I first started thinking about football I always supported Arsenal, it's a dream come true to play against Mesut Ozil, my favourite player.

"It's a big confidence booster especially doing well and hopefully I'm getting better and that my performance out there shows I'm getting better.

"Hopefully Arnie gives me some game time in the FFA Cup game next month and I can show him that I'm worthy of a first-grade team spot."