Arsenal defender Hector Bellerin, who is currently nursing an ankle injury he had suffered opened up about his preference to Arsenal over Barcelona and how Arsene Wenger was influential in him making the decision to choose The Emirates over the Camp.
The Spanish full-back started his football career in Spain with Barcelona signing his first professional contract with the club in 2013. Speaking to The Mirror he said, "Arsene was really influential for me on the moment when I signed to come over here. He was there talking to me when I first got to the Emirates and he was one of the reasons why I signed with the club."
"Just the confidence he has given me, especially after not the greatest debut at Dortmund, my first games weren’t the best”
"From then, I always knew I wanted to pay him off and that’s what I’m doing right now and obviously that is why I wanted to stay at the club."
Bellerin also said that this season’s Premier League campaign was going to be a tough one due to the world class managers available to many teams in the League, but insists that his manager Arsene Wenger has all the qualities and experience to bring out the best from the team.
"This year we knew it was going to be hard because there are so many teams with good coaches. We knew it was going to be really hard. But we’ve got the team and we’ve got the manager."
"We’ve got everything we need to be up there, so we are going to try our best, definitely.”
The faith in his French manager is what convinced the 21-year-old Spaniard to sign a new contract with the London club to ward off clubs like Barcelona and Manchester City.
Arsenal have been unbeaten in their last 19 games until their winning streak came to an end courtesy of Southampton’s 2-0 win in the EFL Cup on Wednesday. Arsenal were knocked out the competition as Southampton progressed to the semi-finals.
The loss to Southampton does not come as a surprise as Arsene Wenger fielded a B-team against the Saints. The French manager will now be looking to start his in-form first team players as they take on Slaven Bilic’s Hammers on Saturday in the Premier League.
Hector Bellerin is aiming for a return from injury to play regular football in less than three weeks to face Pep Guardiola blue army at the Etihad.
