After a superb start to the season, Héctor Bellerín missed games against Bayern Munich and Spurs due to a groin injury.

The right-back returned a month ago for the 3-0 Champions League win over Dinamo Zagreb and, while playing well, hasn’t yet recaptured his form from the opening few months of the campaign.

Nonetheless, he’s getting minutes under his belt and is working his way back into the form.

“After the injury it’s important to get a good run of games and get the rhythm back again,” said the 20-year-old defender after the defeat of Sunderland. “It’s important to get the three points as well because that helps you a lot.

“You need to go step by step to get the rhythm that you had before and I’m pleased with my performance against Sunderland. I know there’s more to come and now we are just focused on the game on Wednesday because it’s a really important one for us.”

With Arsenal needing a strong result against Olympiacos in the Champions League on Wednesday, Bellerín is expected to start ahead of the unhappy Mathieu Debuchy yet again.

The Gunners know they must win by two clear goals, or with a scoreline of at least 3-2, in order to progress into the knockout rounds of the Champions League.

“We’ve proved already that we’re a team who are very dangerous when we have the ball,” Bellerín said. “We need to try to do that at Olympiacos by having possession and creating chances.”

Hopefully Arsenal can create – and take – enough chances to advance on Wednesday, and hopefully Bellerín is in top form again.

Despite appearing in 17 matches this season, he’s only played three of the seven games which Arsenal have lost. The sample size isn’t very big, but maybe Arsenal need Bellerín to stay fit to be a real force at home and in Europe.