Just two minutes after coming off the bench at Aston Villa on Saturday, Leandro Trossard scored Arsenal's crucial opening goal, beating Emiliano Martinez with a first-time finish after the hosts had failed to deal with Bukayo Saka's cut-back.

It was vintage Trossard. The super-sub with the superhero-inspired celebration had come to his side's rescue once again. Arsenal had been second best for the majority of the game at Villa Park and would have been behind had it not been for some atrocious finishing from Ollie Watkins and heroics from David Raya.

Trossard's strike, then, was a veritable game-changer, and yet the 29-year-old clearly wasn't in the mood to don his 'goggles' on his occasion. He had to be talked into doing so by team-mate William Saliba.

Why? Because Trossard was clearly still annoyed that Gabriel Martinelli had been once again selected to start ahead of him - and his frustration was fully justified.

'Little magician'

There are those that believe that Trossard's best role is 'impact sub'; that he isn't as effective as a starter. It's pure rubbish. Whether deployed on the left wing or through the middle, he's rarely let his team down. On the contrary, he's usually stepped up to the mark.

When Martinelli's form fell off a cliff at the tail end of last season, Arteta began picking Trossard on the left flank instead of the Brazilian - who didn't contribute either a goal or an assist in Arsenal's final 10 Premier League fixtures - and the Belgium international played a pivotal role in the Gunners' taking the title race right to the wire.

Trossard scored four times in five games between April 20 and May 12 alone, with his fine form prompting Hollywood star Anne Hathaway to declare her "love" for a player that Arteta described as "a little magician".

'Our best finisher'

Given the stark contrast with the way in which Martinelli's 2023-24 campaign had concluded, Trossard was perfectly entitled to think that he would begin the new season as Arteta's first-choice left winger. However, he saw just 10 minutes of game time in the opening-weekend win over Wolves - and that clearly rankled. Indeed, Trossard didn't just send a message to his manager with his goal against Villa, his stone-faced celebration felt just as noteworthy.

As Arsenal legend Ian Wright told Premier League Productions, "We're talking about someone who is arguably our best finisher, our most clinical finisher, and someone who comes on and affects games. Yes, we know Martinelli has a lot of pace and when he is in form he is very, very dangerous, but what we know with Leandro Trossard is his movement and appreciation for the rest of the team in what he does is very important.

"We saw him come on and score and create a goal [against Villa]. He is someone you look at now and he's asking, 'What do I need to do to start?'"

It's a perfectly valid question, as Martinelli's case for continued inclusion is desperately weak.