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By ISAAN KHAN, REPORTER
Published: 21:00 EST, 7 January 2026 | Updated: 21:00 EST, 7 January 2026
Arsenal’s attacking fortunes could have turned out very differently indeed if they had got their way back in the January transfer window of 2023.
That was when the Gunners were desperately trying to sign Mykhailo Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk to bolster their frontline.
The deal seemed done and dusted only for Chelsea to hijack it, forking out £88.5million in a move which has not worked out, to put it mildly. Mudryk has been suspended since December 2024 after a urine sample led to a failed drugs test. He no longer has a squad number at Stamford Bridge.
Gazumped Arsenal pivoted to the less sexy signing of Leandro Trossard, who had been in the Premier League with Brighton for four years. A seemingly known quantity, reliable, decent, but not a bums-off-the-seat kind of player, the Gunners did not have to fight off their fellow Premier League big-boys for his signing. At £27m, he arrived without fanfare. He looked very much like a second-best option, a fall-back.
But the Belgian's exploits with the Gunners have been so sensational it is hard to argue against the winger being Arsenal’s most dependable forward since Mikel Arteta took the reins in December 2019.
And he is no flat-track bully. Few players in the Premier League have made a habit of delivering decisive moments against elite opposition quite like Trossard.
Leandro Trossard joined Arsenal in the January window of 2023 after the club failed to land Mykhailo Mudryk
The dependable winger's importance is not lost on Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta
Trossard has scored 19 goals against the league’s 'Big Six' across his time at Arsenal and Brighton – more than stellar names such as Ryan Giggs (18) and Eden Hazard (17) managed in their careers. It is rare company, and rarer still for a player so often regarded as a supporting act.
It is why the 31-year-old will be firmly on the radar of Arne Slot as he prepares his Liverpool side ahead of their trip to the Emirates tonight. It is understood that Trossard started Arsenal's 3-2 victory at Bournemouth on Saturday from the bench, coming on in the 67th minute, so that he was ready for the match against the Reds.
While Trossard's importance can often be overlooked, it's not lost on Arteta.
‘For me it was forbidden for him (Trossard) to leave,’ Arteta said in November, amid Saudi interest in Trossard, whose contract expires in the summer of 2027. ‘No chance. I know the player that he is, and surrounded with the players that we have, he's a player that is going to make a difference for us.’
Rather than sell, Arsenal improved Trossard's pay - although he is still contracted to the summer of 2027. But the forward is more than earning his keep. In the 2025 calendar year, the player with the most goal contributions for Arsenal was not Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz or Martin Odegaard but Trossard with 25 (13 goals, 12 assists). Mikel Merino was next with 21 (13 goals, eight assists), and Declan Rice third with 20 (nine goals, 11 assists).
Trossard has 26 goals in 67 Premier League starts for Arsenal. He has made 108 appearances in total, though, which shows how often Arteta has trusted him to make a difference off the bench.
Yet he hasn’t always put up those sorts of numbers. At Brighton it took a crucial intervention to get his game back to how it had been at his old club Genk, in Belgium.
‘He wasn’t being selfish enough,' a source involved in his move from Brighton to Arsenal tells Daily Mail Sport. 'Look at what he did at Genk, he’s got a strike on him. His strike-rate there in terms of hitting the target was 50 per cent, higher than Robert Lewandowski and Mo Salah at the time. It was phenomenal accuracy.
Trossard scored plenty of goals for Genk in the Belgian Pro League, where he hit the target with 50 per cent of his shots
Trossard gives the Gunners the lead over Tottenham in November, another goal against a 'Big Six' side
‘At Brighton it was all tippy-tappy, too nice, too passive. He was playing the kind of football which looked good on the eye but wasn’t cut-throat or decisive enough in the final third.
‘He was told that if he wants a move to a bigger club, he’s got to be more selfish and go for goals at Brighton.’
Trossard certainly did that, scoring seven times for the Seagulls in the first 18 league matches of 2022-23, and attracting the attention of a number of clubs.
‘Spurs put in an offer but Daniel Levy didn’t want to pay £20m plus add-ons,' the source adds. 'Levy was after £15m plus adds-ons. But Brighton wouldn’t accept that.
‘Trossard was on Arsenal’s secondary list. They offered what Brighton wanted late in the day because they had (missed) their priority targets. It was a player they thought at worse would be a squad player, but look how he’s turned out.’
Goals of great importance have flowed since, which put Trossard in a strong position at the negotiating table last year. He wanted to extend his deal beyond 2027. In the end, Arteta persuaded him to stay and agree a pay rise instead.
Daily Mail Sport understands that prior to signing the new deal, Trossard was told that he’d likely be used as a squad player rather than as a consistent starter. That was reflected at the beginning of this campaign, the winger making just two substitute appearances from the north London club’s opening four league matches.
But Trossard has once again become Arteta’s go-to attacker. Over the next 16 league matches this season, he made 11 starts, despite missing two games due to an ankle injury. He doesn’t go away easily.
Trossard scores against Chelsea at the Emirates in April 2024. Bought as a squad player, he has become a regular starter for Arsenal
Trossard grabs the only goal of the game as Arsenal win at Old Trafford in May 2024
Last season, he featured in every league match, starting 28 of the 38 games. He has no plans to take a backseat role anytime soon.
Take his two goals last month against third-placed Aston Villa across two matches. In the first game on December 6, he scored six minutes after coming on at half-time, coolly slotting home Saka’s deflected cross to equalise.
And then on December 30, Trossard put Arsenal 3-0 up with a strike from outside the area to top off a display where he caused problems with his incisive dribbling from wide areas.
This was the diminutive forward again scoring against strong opposition; in this case, an Unai Emery side vying for the title.
The attacker is also highly robust. Since making his Gunners debut on January 22, 2023, Trossard has made 147 appearances across all competitions. No player has played more under Arteta, with Gabriel Martinelli in second on 138 appearances.
Across those 147 matches, Trossard has scored 35 goals and provided 29 assists. Those numbers, solid rather than spectacular, do not fully convey his impact though. His goals tend to arrive when Arsenal need them most - such as late winners or momentum-shifting strikes against elite opponents.
His heightened impact this season has come as a result of playing in the same position. In the league last campaign, he was used as a striker 46 per cent of the time and as a left winger 50 per cent of the time. This term, Trossard has been on the left wing for 96 per cent of his gametime. It’s a shift which has helped the forward play to his strengths.
Arteta is said to like the player’s competitive spirit. When he doesn’t play, there’s an edge about him.
Trossard bends in the third goal in the 4-1 win over Aston Villa at the Emirates in December
Trossard scores moments after coming off the bench against Villa at Villa Park. 'He can make an impact because he’s got that drive,' says Arteta, 'that anger which says, “I’m gonna show you”. I love that about him’
Trossard averages a goal every 214 minutes for Arsenal in the league this season. That is the best ratio of any player in Arteta’s squad who has played at least 100 minutes
‘He always wants to be the best,' the manager has said of Trossard, 'and when he’s not there, he’s not happy.
‘But that’s what pushes him. He’s got that drive, that anger which says, “I’m gonna show you”. I love that about him.’
His finishing, too, has not gone unnoticed by insiders, who remark how impressive it is. Trossard averages a goal every 214 minutes for Arsenal in the league this season. That is the best ratio of any player in Arteta’s squad who has played at least 100 minutes (Eberechi Eze is second on a goal every 229 minutes).
It might be the likes of midfield maestro Rice and rock-solid centre back Gabriel who gain the plaudits during Arsenal’s title push. But it is often unheralded stars like Trossard who make the difference between falling short and sealing silverware come May.