The spot for the starting eleven is a hard buy at Arsenal, you have to be at the top of your game week-in-week-out to find yourself as a first choice under Mikel Arteta. A hint of complacency and you find yourself on the backfoot and that has been the case for Leandro Trossard, despite his high-intensity performances – starts have been hard to come by for the Belgian with Gabriel Martinelli holding the left-flank ahead of him.
With Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah, ahead of him in the pecking order at the no. 9 position – the opportunities were hard to come by. But with both of them sidelined for yesterday’s Champions League game vs Sevilla – Trossard was given his opportunity and boy oh boy did he take it. He finished a move that came from a brilliant line-breaking pass from Jorginho that went through to Bukayo Saka who squared off to Trossard, who put it into the net.
“I always need to be switched on to be honest,” when asked how demanding it can be, he replied, to play in different positions.
“I always need to know my role. But I like it, I will never back down from anything. If you put me as a striker, or a winger or a number 10, I will always play my game I think. He (Arteta) knows I like to swap positions as well during the game. We have those type of players as well and it creates a bit of chaos for the opposition team. I like it. I am really happy.
“It is always a nice feeling when you score, but when you do it in a Champions League game it’s always a nicer feeling. It gave us a lead and I think we played brilliantly.”
The Gunners went into the game with defeats in two games, suffering a defeat in the Carabao Cup vs West Ham before that disgraceful defeat against Newcastle in the Premier League on Saturday. Trossard argues that the players were never anxious about a hat-trick of defeats as they gained control of Group B.
“We are never worried because we know our quality and we knew we had to bounce back. “I think that made us start the game so well with a lot of aggressiveness and when the goal came it was a relief for us. Then from that moment we controlled the game.
“We are always confident. We want to win every game and that’s how we approach them. We will try and win the next two games as well.
“The manager just wanted us to attack when we had the ball, to get the ball to the wingers. Bukayo and Gabi (Martinelli) are so good one-v-one – then you see you can create a lot of chances. We did it so well.”
