Interview

Trossard on his dream first year at Arsenal

After marking his first anniversary at the club with a goal during our 5-0 win against Crystal Palace, Leandro Trossard admitted that the last 12 months have been everything he could possibly have wished for.

We cruised to victory against the Eagles with Leo netting the third goal of the game, following up Gabriel’s header and a Dean Henderson own goal, before Gabriel Martinelli netted a late brace to emphatically end a three-game wait for a win.

And it was a fine way for Leo to reflect on his first 12 months in red and white, having signed from Brighton & Hove Albion exactly 12 months ago to the day and since going on to score seven times and lay on 12 assists during 46 Gunners games.

Speaking post-match, the Belgian said: “It’s been a great year for me and it’s obviously nice to be on the scoresheet. It was a nice one for me - that’s a bit my game, I suppose. I always try to be as composed as possible in the box, and today it helped me to get that goal.

“It’s been a great year for me - everything I could wish for! Obviously, at the end of last season, the perfect way to end it would have been to win the league, but in general, it’s been great for me.

“We’re through to the Champions League as well into the next rounds, and I enjoy it a lot with the lads as well, it’s a great team.”

Going into this game, much had been said and written about our recent woes in front of goal, however that was laid to rest this afternoon on an afternoon that we put Palace to the sword, equalling our biggest-ever Premier League London derby win in the process.

It was a match that Leo revealed he relished playing in, and was thrilled the hard work on the training ground out in Dubai and back at Colney over recent weeks has paid off - even if he just wants to get back in the thick of match action rather than the 10-day wait for our fixture.

When asked if he enjoyed himself out there, he added: “Definitely - especially how we scored the first goals on set-pieces. We work on them a lot and then it’s really nice when we pull it off on the pitch. It got us going into the game as well, so it’s a really nice win for us.

“That’s how we wanted to start again in the league. After the little break, everyone was fresh again, you could see we were so hungry from the start, and we wanted to score goals. Obviously, it’s really nice that we got the clean sheet as well, so it’s a perfect performance for us.

“When you get a performance in like today, obviously you want to keep going, but that’s how it is now with the schedule. We will work towards the next game now.”