How our bench has already changed games

We may only be two games into the new season, but the impact made by our bench has already been significant.

In the Community Shield, Sead Kolasinac came on for the injured Per Mertesacker and then scored the equaliser against Chelsea.

Five days later, it was Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud’s cameos that helped turn our Premier League opener against Leicester on its head.

“I think Oli showed [his importance] here,” Petr Cech said afterwards. “Aaron came on as a sub, he scored. Olivier came on as a sub, he scored. You need everybody. 

“In the Community Shield, I felt that the lads who came on really helped us. After Mertesacker got injured, Sead came on and today he had another good game, a strong game. 

“It’s good to see and as well we had some players still not available so it’s important to keep the squad together.

“I think the positive is that we managed to win the game [against Leicester]. We scored four goals, we were twice in a very difficult situation and we got out of that and that is very positive. 

“Obviously you don’t want to concede three goals, especially when you play at home because in this league you give yourself a mountain to climb. We need to do better but we have to be happy with a win.”