Edu: Why I'll never play for England

By the age of 22 Edu had won two Brazilian titles and the World Club Championship with Corinthians and since then, of course, has become the only Brazilian to win the Premiership.

It's ironic that one of his chief competitors for a place in Brazil's midfield is his Arsenal team-mate Gilberto Silva. Gilberto, Emerson at Roma, Ze Roberto at Bayern Munich - the competition for that famous yellow shirt is as tough as it is for the red shirt at Arsenal. "Yes, it's the same," said Edu.

"But I love the challenge. I love Arsenal and the fans and my life in London. My wife and I are comfortable here. We spend a lot of time looking around London, but we also visit places like Bath. We've found a lot of good friends and I'm talking English better. People think that we should miss the sunshine and beaches but it's not true."

We talked about the differences between English and Brazilian football and I told him that, for my generation of fans, the greats of Brazilian football will always be players like Pele, Gerson, Tostao and Rivelino.

"Yes, but it was a different game 20 or 30 years ago," he said. "It's more physically demanding now and your technique has to be good to play football at the pace of the modern game. But I believe good footballers can play anywhere. Players like Ashley Cole, Ray Parlour or Sol Campbell could all play in Brazil.

"To be honest, when I arrived here I didn't know very much about English football. I was surprised by what I saw. I quickly realised that the English player was not only strong but also had the technical ability to play the game at a faster pace than I was used to.

"There is no time here to rest, to do a little bit and then slow down. You have to be sharp when you have the ball and sharp when they have the ball. It's much faster here than in Brazil and I think in the time I've been here I've become a little quicker. I've had to."

That infectious smile, an unassuming personality and a left foot you could peel a grape with - echoes of Liam Brady perhaps - have endeared Edu to the Highbury faithful. They will not forget his goal at Old Trafford in the FA Cup last season or the fact that he played in every round, only to miss the final because of injury.

So far this season he has made 14 starts and been a key figure in both domestic cup competitions and the Champions League. "I want to win every game I play - and I want to enjoy doing it," he said.

That winning ethic, the common denominator in all the players signed by Arsene Wenger, took root in young Edu at Corinthians. "I started training with them when I was five," he recalled. "It's the way we do it in Brazil. We start early."

Some of the tricks we see today on the pitch at Highbury were first tried by Edu in Sao Paulo 20 years ago. " Perhaps I can teach Luigi the same tricks," he added. "I hope he'll be a better player than his father."