Bellerin - We should manage the game better

Hector Bellerin believes there is still plenty of room for improvement, despite a thumping win over Leeds United on Sunday.

We blasted our way to a three goal lead by half-time in a fine attacking display, with Bellerin himself grabbing the third goal – his first since January last year. But afterwards he lamented the way we let the visitors back into the game with two goals in the second half.

 

“If there’s a team in the Premier League that you know will run for the whole 90 minutes, that’s Leeds,” the Spaniard said.

 

“We did really well to score straight away from the re-start but then we conceded a set piece. It’s something that we know they’re strong at and we need to be more careful with that. Then we conceded another goal and even though you’re still two goals up you’re trying to defend the box as much as you can and make sure they don’t get another one.

 

“That shouldn’t be the way we play, you know? We should manage the game better in a way that when we’re winning 4-0, we should just have the ball and make them run instead of them making us run. There’s still a lot to learn but obviously, especially that first half, was really positive.”

 

Bellerin scored our third just before half-time, after being set up by compatriot Dani Ceballos. It was his first goal of the lockdown era, his last came in a 2-2 draw at Chelsea last January. “It’s been a long time,” he added. “I’d almost forgotten the last time I scored. To be fair usually when I get into those positions I try to look for a striker.

 

“Someone to get in a better position than me but I saw the opening and I just went for goal. Obviously, I’m really happy about that but still in the back of my mind there’s a lot of work to do if you want to be back at the top.

 

“A performance like today it should have been a completely different second half but as I say, it was a very positive second half and we’ll build on that.”