Hector Bellerin told reporters after Arsenal’s win against West Ham United there have been a few adjustments to the team’s style of play under Unai Emery, but stressed they’re still the same players as before.

Arsenal managed to grind out a 3-1 victory at the Emirates Stadium, and Bellerin was a key part of that result, helping to set up a couple of Gunners goals. Whilst the full-back admitted there have been changes under new management, he insisted there’s still a lot of things that have stayed the same from the side Arsene Wenger put together.

“At the end of the day it’s football, right, and that’s what we’ve always been playing,” Bellerin said. “There’s always a few adjustments here and there that we need to make in order to play the style that the coach wants to play.

“But of course we’ve been playing with each other for a long time so even though the system changes, at the end of the day we’re the same players so we still understand each other and that helps.

“It’s all about the work of the team and we’ve been working really hard this week and we knew what we had to do in order to score goals and that’s what we all did together.”

To an extent, you don’t want a new coach to change too much too quickly, even if the previous season was a disappointment. You have to take things step by step, building on what you already have, or your team will lose its identity completely.

The combinations that were working well last season will hopefully continue to bear fruit in the current campaign. For example, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette haven’t spent much time on the pitch together yet this season, but when they are, you can see glimpses of their impressive partnership from the end of 2017/18.

Emery just has to find a way to incorporate what’s already working into his new style. In turn, the media and the fans need to give him time to do so. Hopefully three points against West Ham shows we’re on the right track.