Napoli's 19-goal striker Milik not expecting to be underestimated by Arsenal

Arkadiusz Milik says he isn't expecting to be underestimated by Arsenal as he prepares to face the Gunners in the Europa League.

The 25-year-old Polish striker has been a key figure for the Serie A side since moving to the club from Ajax in 2016, but has truly shown his true potential in the 2018-19 season.

Milik has fired 19 goals in 38 total appearances for the club this campaign, including 16 in 28 league matches.

That tally has Milik sitting fifth in the top-goalscorer standings, behind Fabio Quagliarella, Krzysztof Piatek, Duvan Zapata and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Napoli face Arsenal in the quarter-final of the Europa League on Thursday and while Milik may be a name that Gunners fans aren't entirely familiar with, he doesn't expect he will be underestimated.

"No, I don’t think that anyone is underestimating me. I play for Napoli, which is a great team," Milik told Goal and DAZN .

"These are fan discussions and I don’t want to feed that debate, because I just try to give my all for the team.

"But fans love to discuss and debate things like this, that’s what fans do. It’s completely normal and happens all over the world, fans from every team say: ‘this guy isn’t good enough’ or ‘this player is way too good'. That’s how football works."

He added: "No [I'm not frustrated], not at all. I’m already used to it."

Milik recently scored a stunning goal in Napoli's most recent victory, a 4-1 win over Roma on March 31.

The Polish star took a magnificent spinning touch before firing as he turned, setting social media alight with one of the best goals of the season.

"I’ve seen it two or three times," he said. "A lot of fans have sent me the clip of the goal on Instagram as well. So I could watch it again on there.

"I was happy obviously, but I didn’t think too much about it.

"We won the game and that is the most important thing at the end of the day. That’s the only thing that matters once the match is over."

Milik is in the midst of his first injury-free season in Naples, having suffered major setbacks in each of his first two seasons in Italy.

The forward missed 23 games with a knee injury in 2016-17 before another knee issue robbed him of 29 games last season.

Now fully fit and scoring plenty of goals, Milik is glad to be contributing after going through a tough time where he feared he may not return to the top level.

"The hardest time for me was after the first [knee] injury. They told me that the recovery period would be very long, so that was the hardest moment I have gone through during my life," he said.

"I truly believed that I would not be able to return to playing at the level I am now. In the end everything went the way that I wanted it to go, though.

"I’m still here at Napoli, I’m growing as a footballer and I'm getting playing time. That’s what helps me keep a smile on my face.

"The second injury was easier to deal with because after three or four weeks I was already walking normally. So I was confident that I would be able to play again, that I could come back and would be running around the pitch again.

"Therefore I was much calmer and time went by quicker."