Arsenal 2-0 Bilbao
by Layth Yousif
at San Mames

GABRIEL MARTINELLI and Leandro Trossard came off the bench to earn Arsenal a 2-0 Champions League win over Athletic Club in Bilbao.

In a hard-fought match in front of 51,059 the pair of replacements - labelled 'finishers' by a delighted Arteta afterwards - helped the battling Gunners to a precious win in the thunderingly atmospheric San Mames, situated in the heart of Bilbao. 

Speaking after his club's satisfying triumph, beaming Basque-born Arteta said: “Something we always discuss is that the finishers have to impact the game, and Gabi and Leo came on to make the difference for the team.

“They were outstanding and the rest of the team as well. In many moments, they were at a very good level.

“When someone is able to win the game in those actions and be so clinical, it's exactly what we need because the threat can come from different ways and different players. I'm very pleased with that.

“It means that [Gabi and Leo] are connected and they feel that they are really, really important. We have discussed that a lot. We're going to need that. Piero [Hincapie] comes in and plays five minutes and so does Christian [Norgaard] and it's the best five minutes of their lives. That's the spirit that we need amongst the squad. If we have everybody at that level, we'll win a lot of games.”

Arsenal struggled to create chances, prompting Arteta to replace his summer signings Viktor Gyokeres and Eberechi Eze that saw the 24-year-old Martinelli latch onto a ball over the top by Trossard in the 72nd minute, to open the scoring a mere 36 seconds after coming on, as the relentlessly raucous San Mames crowd whistled its fury. 

Worse was to come for the home side when Martinelli returned the favour for Trossard with four minutes remaining to clinch a hard-fought triumph, when the Belgium attacker's deflected effort left goalkeeper Unai Simon unable to prevent the ball crossing the line. 

Leaving the team to celebrate with 2,500 travelling Gooners high up in the gods at the stadium locals nickname La Catedral (The Cathedral.)

A smiling Arteta added: “I’m very happy. It’s an incredible place to come and play football, and the atmosphere is one of the best I've seen.” 

“We knew it was going to be very difficult, so we had to earn the right to win the game. I think throughout the game we became more and more dominant and much more of a threat.

“So overall, very good. I'm going to see some family now, I'm looking forward to it. I hope the fans travelled well, they were amazing again.”