Calum Chambers has said that he is confident he "can grow to enjoy" the new position given to him by Arsenal manager Unai Emery.

The 23-year-old defender was pushed into a more advanced central-midfield role for the Gunners' opening pre-season match at the weekend.

Chambers, awarded a new long-term contract by Emery earlier this summer, performed well during his time on the field as Arsenal ran out 8-0 winners against the non-league side.

Asked after the one-sided match about playing higher up the pitch, Chambers told the club's official website. "It's a new one for me. I played there a little bit growing up. It's a position I feel like I can grow to enjoy and out there today I felt good, I just need to train and practice in games in that position to get comfortable.

"It's an important position. If you can get on the ball, turn and break their lines then it kills their press, so I think it's an important position and anyone who's playing in there needs to learn how to do that.

"Obviously you can't do it all the time, you can't take risks and when it's not on you can bounce it backwards at an angle for someone else to play through the lines. But if you can get on it and you have time and it's not a risk, turn and play forward and that's the best way to get through a press.

"It's our first game of the season and first friendly so it's always going to be tough and the conditions didn't help either, but it was a good test for us and a good run out. It's important we put into practice what we've been learning on the training field and I think we did that today."

Chambers joined Arsenal from Southampton in the summer of 2014 and has gone on to make over 80 appearances in all competitions.