Mikel Arteta hailed Leandro Trossard as “a smart footballer” after he set up a trio of goals to help Arsenal return to second place in the Premier League with a 3-0 win at Fulham 3. -0

The 28-year-old joined Arsenal in January from Brighton and has shone for the Gunners. Helping to offset injuries to forwards Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah.

Trossard’s delivery at Craven Cottage was excellent. His first assist came in the 21st minute, picking off Gabriel Magalhaes from a corner for the Brazilian to nod home.

Gabriel Martinelli scored the second five minutes later, with Martin Odegaard doing all but three points for the visitors before half-time.

Arteta breaks down on Trossard involvement

“He has three assists and two goals, I think he’s really impressive,” said Arteta.

“Not only that. He had an injury three days ago that could last a week or ten days. But he was willing to return earlier than expected. And the doctors and medical staff are doing a great job.”

“It makes a big difference in the team. we need him today And his work is great.

“It’s football intelligence, he’s really smart, he understands immediately what we want, what we want, he’s doing really well.”

The glory days of the The Gunners were limited to 13 minutes from Gabriel’s time. Jesus came off the bench to make his first substitute appearance since undergoing knee surgery after suffering an injury while playing for Brazil at the World Cup in November.

“[It was] a big encouragement. Take the first step today We don’t know if it was the right game today. He said to me a few days ago that ‘I’m still missing something’, said Arteta.

“Yesterday I looked him in the eye and he said, ‘I’m ready’, I said ‘OK!’ So we had a chance to bring him on the pitch.

“It was the first step to promote him, he looked free, he looked ready and as soon as he created those two big chances. It’s good to have him back.”

Marco Silva insists Fulham is at fault for every Arsenal goal. As he lamented the rare poor performance of his team. which missed the opportunity to return to 7th place in the table

“Three good goals? We’ve done it lightly in every goal. We fainted in the first half. Gotta give credit to Arsenal. They deserved three points,” the Fulham boss said.

“The goal, the way they did it, is all our fault.

“Obviously Arsenal deserved the three points. In the first half we were on the pitch but at times it looked like we weren’t.

“Too soft, not brave enough, not aggressive against the ball. And we let them play the way they want.