Leandro Trossard hailed our 2-0 victory against Aston Villa as the “perfect win” as the Belgian came off the bench to help us take all three points at Villa Park.
Trossard’s first touch after coming on as a substitute was to find the bottom corner of Emi Martinez’s net and break the deadlock in the Midlands. Thomas Partey wrapped up the points 10 minutes later with a curling effort as we made it back-to-back wins to start our Premier League season.
“I think everyone knows what a tough place this can be,” the Belgian said. “To come away with three points and another clean sheet, it’s a perfect win for us.”
Super sub does it again
This was Trossard’s sixth Premier League goal as a substitute for us, the highest share of any player to score 10+ goals for the club in the league.
Competition is high in the squad, with every player fighting to earn a place in Mikel Arteta’s starting XI and Trossard believes that desire to push standards has seen him improve as a player.
He said: “I know the competition in the team and it pushes everyone to go onto the next level and as I said before, I’m very happy to have an impact and help the team and it’s a great win for us.
“I think you can see it on the pitch as well, I’m feeling great. I think I’ve shown that over the last months and it helps the team as well and it pushes everyone across the team. In every position there’s competition, it’s what the club also needs.”
This was our eighth away clean sheet in 2024 and we’ve conceded just three goals on the road in the calendar year.
We had our goalkeeper David Raya to thank for maintaining the clean sheet as the Spaniard showed superb reflexes to deny Ollie Watkins a certain goal from close range.
Trossard was impressed by Raya’s remarkable stop and gave special praise to the Spanish international.
“[It was] amazing, he kept us in the game there. He did it last week as well and that’s why he’s there. I think he showed his quality there, that’s helped us to win the game for sure.”
A Leandro Trossard goal is often met with his iconic goggles celebration, but the Belgian revealed he needed a little encouragement from team mate William Saliba to show off his signature move to the travelling supporters.
“Some games its different celebrations,” he said. “It’s also emotions and I heard Saliba in my ear the whole time saying ‘do your celebration’ so that’s why I did it at the end as well.
“It’s always nice when your team mates are happy for you to score a goal as well and I think we really needed it at that point in the game and it gave a boost to go and win the game.”
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