Morning folks. How we all doing? Nervous anticipation ahead of Sunday? Or like me are you just nervous?

There will be a press conference today from Mikel Arteta, in which we’ll get an update on player availability, with the likelihood of confirmation being that Saliba is out for the weekend. I said my bit on him yesterday and so I won’t labour on that point, but the hope is that Arteta can give us a clean bill of health with the other players in our team and I’m hoping that when he sits down in front of the journos we get an otherwise clean bill of health.

Given the dearth of any other Arsenal-related news that I can see out there in the world, I thought I’d dedicate a little bit of time today to talk about the impact of one player in particular who I have been pleasantly, no, massively impressed by since he joined us and a player who, I think, I haven’t really given enough props to since he came in January:

Leandro Trossard.

I, like you I’m sure, thought that this was a decent enough singing. My expectations was that we had signed a 28-year-old back up forward who could play across the front line and be called in for Europa League games and would provide ground support for when some of the first team players had a slight knock for a week or two. I think my mindset when we brought him from Brighton was “£27million for a back up is ok, he’s the wrong side of the age curve, but if he helps us stay fit by filling in for four or five games between now and the end of the season, then I’m ok with it”. The signing – in comparison to the expectation of Mudryk joining and the excitement there, was certainly more muted and I was part of that crowd.

I’d never really properly watched Trossard in any real detail. I’d seen him for Brighton, I’d seen that he was decent with the ball at his feet, but I hadn’t ever been desperate for a player like him to join us. He joined Brighton in the 2019/20 season and bagged five goals and three assists in 31 games. That’s hardly an immense return if we’re honest, then in 2020/21 he got five goals and five assists in 38 games. Last season he bagged eight goals and three assists in 35 games and I seem to recall seeing a game where Brighton were at home to Brighton, or Liverpool I think, where he squandered a few really good chances. So I had a preconception that he was a tidy player, not very prolific, was just a decent pro in the Premier League and that was about it.

But this season – if you take in to account both Brighton and Arsenal stats, he really has caught fire and since coming to Arsenal in particular, he has looked imperious. He’s bagged eight goals and ten assists, with seven of those assists coming in an Arsenal shirt. He has taken on the role of provider and would even have had an extra goal to his name had what I thought was a perfectly good goal against Leicester not been ruled out.

But whilst his assists have caught the eye for many of us – as you’d expect – it is other aspects of his play that have caught my eye. His control with the ball at his feet is phenomenal. The way he can shift his body weight weave left and right is quite remarkable and really is a bit of a super power of his that I didn’t have in his locker. One of the challenges we faced at times this season is how to break down those low block teams. I am in no doubt that had we had Trossard from the start of the season, perhaps the draw away to Southampton might have been a different result and maybe, just maybe, that frustrating draw at home to Newcastle on New Year’s Day could have done with a little bit of his trickery to unlock a stubborn Geordie back line.

Trossard has come in to the team and slotted in brilliantly. It is as if he’s been with us for five years and the fact that it took him just 67 minutes in an Arsenal shirt (eight minute sub at home to Man United, 31 minutes at Everton and then 28 minutes against Brentford) to make his first impact by scoring, is testament to his instant adaptation at Arsenal in to the way that we play. Arteta was asked recently whether Trossard’s impact was ever expected in his ‘wildest of dreams’ (to which his response was quite funny as we all know) but the question was said for a reason; I am struggling to think of a January signing we have made that has made the kind of impact he has made since he signed. We had no Eddie Nketiah and he slotted straight in at centre forward and even unlocked an improved level of form for Martinelli. He has traded minutes with Martinelli on the left hand side, where he scored which should have been the winning goal against Brentford, as well as just last weekend playing right wing and bagging another assist for Jesus’ goal. His versatility is an asset, but his impact and the fact he is delivering end product is huge for us.

I still make use outsiders for the title given our games versus City’s games, but the very fact we are in this position where we go in to the last nine matches with it still in our hands and in the balance, is in part down to the impact Trossard has had. Jorginho has been a good signing too and for sure he has played his part, but Trossard’s impact has been nothing short of stupendous and I for one can’t speak highly enough of the guy.

If we are going to have a successful season and do what we all currently can’t talk about for fear of jinxing it, then he will need to continue his output along with the rest of the forward line and by my reckoning, I think he can keep on doing it like the rest of them can.

That’s it from me today. Back tomorrow with some more thoughts.

Catch you all then.