In his latest Betway blog, our Global Brand Ambassador discusses his experience working with Leandro Trossard, Mohamed Salah's return to the Liverpool side and some highlights from the 2025/26 season so far.
What did you think of Arsenal’s late win over Wolves?
You’re allowed one or two during the season where you are lucky on the night. That happened to me, and to a lot of teams that I’ve seen win the league. People expected Arsenal to beat Wolves comfortably, but there’s no such thing in the Premier League. The year we stayed unbeaten, we didn’t beat Portsmouth, so it doesn’t mean anything.
Now, you don’t want that to repeat. You will see in a season that the team’s going to be tested, injuries are going to happen, and things are not going to go your way. It’s how you go through that.
This period is always crucial in England. When you enter Christmas up until the end of February, you usually get a clearer view of what’s going to happen, and then you can be a bit more vocal about who can win the league or not. We’ve seen things can happen down to the last day, so don’t be overexcited when you win games, don’t be overexcited when you lose them. It’s a long, long road.
Viktor Gyokeres started, Gabriel Jesus came off the bench and Kai Havertz is back soon, but has Mikel Merino done enough to make himself an option up-front for the rest of the season?
Well, he’s been an option. When you play with or without a No. 9, you have to put the ball in the back of the net. Whether you’re a normal No. 9 or not, I don’t know any more – the bottom line is how you play and how you perform.
We played without a recognised No. 9 against some big teams and we won games. But when things are not going well, or the way people think they should, you start to look at things like injuries, or the No. 9 not scoring. When things are not going well, the things you aren’t doing are going to be raised, even though they were also true when you were winning.
Injuries, the busy calendar – let’s not talk. Everybody has their own problems. Let’s see who’s going to be there at the end. I won’t change my tune from the beginning of the season – we must win the league. It has to be this year for me. I believe the team can do it, and I just hope that we can cross that line.
Leandro Trossard has scored some important goals for Arsenal. You worked with Trossard for the Belgium national team – have you been impressed with him this season?
Yes and no, because I know what he can do. I’ve seen it in training for the national team, and I saw what he did when he was at Genk. He had an outstanding season that got him the move to Brighton.
I’m not surprised because I knew it was in there. It was tough for him to play at times during my time with Belgium because Eden Hazard was in front of him. That’s just a tough one, I guess.
If you look at the goals he scored in Belgium, when he sees the goal and you let him shoot, it’s over. Him being able to finish is something that he worked on early doors, and he can do it with either foot.
I like the way he manoeuvres the ball, and since his Brighton days he added that intensity to be able to play in the Premier League. He’s clever enough to understand that everything comes from the right for Arsenal because Bukayo is there, so sometimes he needs to be on the back post to finish. He’s not that type of winger to stay high and wide when everything’s happening on the other side. He comes inside and scores the goals that I remember Freddie Ljungberg scoring.
We used to build on the left in my time, and finishing with Freddie making the run inside, or finishing with a tap-in at the back post. Trossard has that understanding of what he needs to do for the team at the moment.
What was Trossard like as a character in the dressing room?
Very quiet, but if you give him the ball he becomes different. He doesn’t shy away, he wants the ball, whatever the situation is. You can kick him, you can be losing, you can be winning, he will still come back and try to play the same way. He has that attitude.
Other than that, he’s a quiet guy, has some jokes but is very relaxed.
Is this Arsenal team more suited to winning the Premier League or Champions League? And is the Champions League particularly hard to win as your first trophy?
It’s just a difficult competition to win, regardless of what you have in your team. I don’t know about which is more suitable for Arsenal, and if you think about the noise that was happening last year with Liverpool when they were top of the league, top of the Champions League, they were going to win the treble. Next thing you know, they didn’t. So let’s stay calm.
I think the mentality of thinking that you can win everything is a different thing from winning it. You need to have the mentality to think that you can win everything, but don’t go too far with it. I don’t know what’s going to happen, so let’s let the players tell us.
Mohamed Salah patched things up with Arne Slot and played on Saturday. Were you surprised to see him back in the team?
No, not surprised at all, and it’s not my decision. Whether he is going to play and stay at Liverpool is not on me, it’s on Arne Slot and his team. I only commented on how and when he did what he did. I understand the emotion and frustration, I used to be a player, so I understand Mo Salah. I just didn’t understand how and when he did it.
We’re talking about one of the greatest in the Premier League. I’m not surprised he came back into the team, and I was so happy with the reception of the Liverpool fans because they also understood him. To be fair, I didn’t have any doubt about that.
It’s weird, because what’s happening at Liverpool this year, I was expecting last year. Not in terms of the turmoil, but in terms of the results. I thought maybe Arne Slot was going to struggle, but he showed us last year that he’s a great manager, and now he’s showing us the other part that you need to deal with when you’re a manager. You need to deal with people’s egos and the press, but when you are at Liverpool, that’s just how it is.
I’ve always thought that he’s very honest in what he says after games. What I love about the situation is that in the Inter game, the Liverpool fans sang the name of Arne Slot, and at the weekend they sang the name of Mo Salah. They recognised that they had to support Slot against Inter, and Salah at the weekend. So they did what they had to do, let’s squash it and move on.
Coming up to the halfway point of the Premier League season, which manager has most impressed you so far?
I have to give Unai Emery a lot of credit because, come on, no one saw that coming. The results Villa were getting, they looked lost. They looked like they were not going to be at it. We were looking at it like, is this going to be the end? But, wow, you have to give Emery his credit. He always finds a way.
In three months, we might be saying they went south again. But at this particular moment, the way he put everyone back together, he stayed focused and worked really hard. I’m impressed with the way they stayed united, because I couldn’t see that coming.
Which new signing have you been most impressed by?
I’ll go with with Hugo Ekitike, because at the beginning, he had to prove that he could be at Liverpool, and he did. Now the club is struggling and he’s still delivering. He surprised me. I knew he had that in his locker, but I didn’t know it was going to be that quick in terms of how he adapted.
Of course, it’s easier to adapt when a team is rolling. But he adapted, then he went on the bench, didn’t say anything, came back and still scores his goals, so you have to put him up there.
You recently compared Estevao to Ryan Giggs for the way he runs at players. Which other young talents do you enjoy watching?
I would say Nico O’Reilly. I think he’s naturally a central midfielder, I could see he was a bit lost at the beginning, playing on the left and providing the width. Now he’s getting assists and scoring goals. He defends well, he’s understanding the position, and he plays every game as well.
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