Leandro Trossard has admitted Arsenal must become more ruthless if they want to turn around their fortunes against Chelsea. Mikel Arteta’s side have not won in the Premier League since 5 October and failed to score for the second game in succession in their defeat at Inter in the Champions League on Wednesday, when they registered 21 shots but only four on target.
Trossard has been shouldering some of the creative responsibility in the absence of the captain Martin Ødegaard, who is expected to play some part at Stamford Bridge on Sunday after returning from injury against Inter.
Trossard, who has started seven Premier League matches this season and scored twice, believes they are close to clicking in front of goal. He was asked whether Arsenal needed to make more of the chances they are creating.
“I think so,” he said. “There was a similar path last year. People were doubting about scoring and after January we had a spell of five or six games where we were putting five past opponents. Every season you have a rough period and it’s down to us to get going again. The belief in the team is still really high. We have such great players and we can turn it around quickly.”
Trossard added: “Obviously we want to win more. I think we had a good game on Wednesday. We didn’t score and they scored a penalty. In general we are pushing to win games and score goals. It just needs to click and hopefully that will be on Sunday.”
There remain doubts over the participation of Declan Rice, Mikel Merino and Kai Havertz. Trossard opened the scoring in Arsenal’s record 5-0 victory over Chelsea at the Emirates in April but this time his side go into the derby trailing their rivals on goal difference. A factor in Chelsea’s resurgence under Enzo Maresca has been the excellent form of Moisés Caicedo and Trossard recognises that his former Brighton teammate is thriving.
“He’s definitely a top player,” he said. “I saw straight away when he came into the team at Brighton that he could be a big player for a big team. At the start that was hard but maybe because of the situation at Chelsea. But now he is having a bigger role and bigger impact.”
