The boss of Arsenal, Mikel Arteta, was praise for Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard after leaving the bench to mark in a 2-0 victory in the Champions League in Bilbao.
Martinelli only took 36 seconds to mark his introduction in order to open the score, then to go up Trossard for a deviation at the end of the second.
Arsenal has strengthened their attack in recent weeks with Ebelechi Eze and Viktor Gyokerres, and Arteta says that his whole team will play their role in a busy season.
“I know how much these players want to play this competition and what it means for them, and each time you call the programming, you disappoint a lot of players,” said Arteta.
“They know what I feel about them, so they know that when I have to leave a player on the bench or out of the team, it hurts.
“But to have this experience, I looked at the bench, I looked at him (Martinelli), and in his eyes I could see that he was ready, Leo too.
“I was sure he (Martinelli) was going to react like that. He has such a mentality. He is a player who is constantly ready to learn and he has proven himself. He is very demanding with himself.
“And this is the moment that, hopefully, will give him the confidence to go there again, because he is an exceptional player, and I am so happy that he has decided the match with his two actions.”
From an attacker point of view, Arsenal was without Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus for their trip to the San Mames stadium – but the wave of spending of 250 million pounds of the club contributed to filling the problems of injury that derailed their challenge last season.
And after calling the old goalkeeper to finish work in Spain, Arteta added: “The finish had an impact to win the match.
“The finisters will be more important this season, sometimes than beginners. The quality of these minutes will dictate the quality of our season, that’s for sure.
“I have to make decisions, and I have to make decisions according to the increase in the probability of winning football matches, and they know that this is the only reason why I make certain decisions. Sometimes, and sometimes they are wrong. “
