Leandro Trossard is confident every time Bukayo Saka has the ball he will make something happen as the Arsenal pair combined once again to open the scoring in Saturday’s win over Burnley.
Belgium forward Trossard has scored six goals this season and they have all been assisted by Saka, whose header to the back-post was bravely converted by his team-mate.
Arsenal won 3-1 to move second in the Premier League as William Saliba and Oleksandr Zinchenko goals cancelled out Josh Brownhill’s equaliser for the visitors.
Mikel Arteta praised the “connection” Trossard has with his Arsenal colleagues but none is seemingly as strong as that he has with Saka.
“I don’t know why but every time B (Saka) is on the ball, I just know I need to make a movement or come close to him,” said Trossard.
“In this moment I just gambled on him winning the header and he did and that’s why I got the goal.”
Trossard risked injury to bundle home the opener, turning in Saka’s header from close-range before clattering into Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford and the post.
“In the moment I headed the ball I tried to protect myself,” he added.
“But I hit the post with my forearm and it was really painful but it’s okay and the pain has calmed down.
“It’s always nice to score a goal, of course, that helps your team to win a game and that’s what we did today so it was really important to go into the international break like this and we have done it.”
While the win sees the Gunners leapfrog north London rivals Tottenham, it condemned Burnley to a 10th defeat in their opening 12 games.
The Clarets have now lost five in a row in the league, shipping 14 goals and scoring just three in that time.
Brownhill drew them level for all of three minutes at the Emirates Stadium but the Burnley captain believes there is still plenty to take from recent performances heading into the international break.
“I think overall there’s a lot of positives to take but at the end of the day it’s a defeat, so everybody’s frustrated but like I say I think there’s a lot of positives in there,” he told the club’s official website.
“The confidence that we’ll take, even though the results haven’t gone our way, the performances have been really, really good. It was always going to take a little bit getting going.
“Now it’s time to rest, come back but we’ve got to start getting the results, that’s the main thing.
We can perform well as much as we want but the most important thing is the result and I believe in this team, what we can do and what we can achieve this season – so it won’t be long before we start getting the results we deserve.”
