Arsenal: Arteta praises ‘finishers’ as subs help Gunners win
Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli scored from the bench to highlight Arteta's strength in depth
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was full of praise for Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard after they came off the bench to score in a 2-0 Champions League win in Bilbao.
Martinelli took just 36 seconds to mark his introduction with a goal to open the scoring, and then teed up Trossard for a deflected late second.
Arsenal have strengthened their attack in recent weeks with the likes of Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres, and Arteta says his whole squad will play their part in a busy season.
“I know how much these players want to play this competition and what it means to them, and every time you name the line-up, you are disappointing a lot of players,” said Arteta.
“They know how I feel about them, so they know that when I have to leave a player on the bench or out of the squad, it hurts me.
“But to have that experience, I looked on the bench, I looked at him (Martinelli), and in his eyes I could see that he was ready, Leo as well.
“I was sure that he (Martinelli) was going to react like that. He has such a mentality. He’s a player that is constantly willing to learn and he proved himself. He is very demanding with himself.
“And that’s the moment that hopefully is going to give him the confidence again to go, because he’s an outstanding player, and I am so happy he decided the game with his two actions.”
From an attacking perspective, Arsenal were without Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus for their trip to the San Mames Stadium – but the club’s £250m spending spree has helped fill the injury problems which derailed their challenge last season.
And after calling on the old guard to complete the job in Spain, Arteta added: “The finishers made an impact to win the game.
“The finishers are going to be more important this season, sometimes than the starters. The quality of those minutes is going to dictate the quality of our season, for sure.
“I have to make decisions, and I have to make decisions based on increasing the probability of winning football matches, and they know that’s the only reason why I make certain decisions. Sometimes right, and sometimes they are wrong.”