16 December 2023 , 14:33
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Leandro Trossard is thought of highly among the Arsenal faithful since joining the Gunners in January, but the same may not be true for how his past team-mates view him.
The Belgium international swapped the south coast for the capital when he left Brighton to become part of Mikel Arteta's Emirates revolution, but left the Amex under a cloud after falling out with both boss Roberto De Zerbi and one of his team-mates in ex-Liverpool man Adam Lallana.
In the weeks leading up to his Arsenal switch, it became clear that there was an issue between Trossard and key figures within Brighton's hierarchy. De Zerbi told the media that the forward would not be in contention for selection against Liverpool due to showing a poor attitude in training, but what was unknown was the extent of his fall-out with Lallana.
Comments made by the former England international about how Brighton would be just fine without Trossard made clear there would be no love lost between the pair. "You only need to look at the last three games without him [Trossard], I think it’s been 5-1, 4-1 and 3-0," Lallana told Sky Sports. "So as I said to you earlier, players can leave Brighton but we’ve got enough without them.
"We had enough without [Yves] Bissouma, [Marc] Cucurella, Ben White, Dan Burn, when Neal [Maupay] moved on. So if Leo moves on we’ll cope. We’re coping already."
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The cause of their training ground bust-up is believed to be the fact that Lallana took issue with what he deemed unprofessionalism from Trossard during a separate argument with De Zerbi. Now, ahead of Trossard's second game against his former side on Sunday afternoon, the comments from Lallana have resurfaced and could give the game an added edge.
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Leandro Trossard has had a positive season so far for Arsenal (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)The Seagulls have enjoyed some joy against the Gunners in recent years, including their last meeting, where De Zerbi's men all but ended Arsenal's title hopes with a 3-0 win at the Emirates. Ahead of this contest, Arteta praised Brighton for the way they improved both Trossard and fellow former Amex regular Ben White.
"I know how good they are in their processes, in the culture they have, in the way they are coached," Arteta explained. "You can tell they are both very intelligent players who understand how we want to live together, how we want to play the game.
"Both have a lot of versatility - that’s not a coincidence, it’s because of the way they played under Graham [Potter] as well. They had to understand the game very well to fulfil those roles."