Bellerin happy as Gunners up and running
HECTOR Bellerin insists Arsenal’s first win of the season was always going to be “just a question of time” as the Gunners beat West Ham on Saturday.
Unai Emery went into the London derby having lost his first two matches as Arsenal’s new head coach, to Manchester City and Chelsea.
Despite falling behind to a Marko Arnautovic strike, his side hit back to win as Nacho Monreal and Danny Welbeck scored — with an Issa Diop own goal helping the hosts to a 3-1 victory.
Bellerin set up two of the goals but struggled defensively at times as West Ham, whose pointless start to the campaign continues, arguably did enough to earn a draw.
“I wouldn’t describe it as relief,” Bellerin said. “We’ve been working hard now for the last two months, so we knew it was just a question of time.
“We had two tough games to start after lots of changes at the club. We knew it was a question of time, a question of scoring the chances that we had.”
While Emery now has his first Premier League points, and rejected suggestions he had a row with Mesut Ozil before the game, Arsenal still made heavy weather of seeing off the Hammers and were lucky the visitors lacked a cutting edge in front of goal.
“We still could have been even more efficient,” added Bellerin.
“But even though we started behind in the scores, we turned it around and I was very happy with the reaction of the team.”
Manuel Pellegrini led an overhaul of the squad at West Ham having been appointed as the new boss at the London Stadium.
Eight new signings started at Arsenal but so far the former Manchester City manager has been unable to find a winning formula.
“The only sad thing from today’s game is that we lost,” goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski said.
“From what I saw today, even though we lost, I think we’re going in the right direction.”