Contrary to the claims of many in the media recently, Hector Bellerin believes Arsenal have ‘evolved’ since Unai Emery took over.

Recently, plenty of journalists and pundits have started to question whether Unai Emery has really had an impact on the Arsenal team since Arsene Wenger’s departure.

Most recently, Robin van Persie suggested there hadn’t been any improvement at the club and claimed Emery isn’t clear enough to be a leader. Hector Bellerin rejects this line of thinking though, claiming the team has moved on significantly in the last year or so.

“I think this team has evolved a lot since the beginning of last season,” Bellerin said. “When the board sign a manager like Unai, they know it’s all going to be part of a process.

“He has his ideas and he’s done so well at Sevilla and Valencia and Paris – so everyone trusts in the manager.

“Sometimes things don’t go your way but then it’s about turning it around. I think if you take out from last season those three games which we lost – it would have been a very positive season and turned out another way.

“It is part of a process and I think we are improving as players and the manager is getting to know us every single day and for us, it is to just to keep going forward with the head up.”

It would certainly represent a major issue at the club if Bellerin didn’t get behind Emery. After all, the Spanish head coach has just named the right-back one of his captains, and by extension one of the main players helping him get messages across to the squad.

If Bellerin wasn’t on his side, that would be a problem, but it seems like he is.

Given all the fan anger towards Emery at the moment, Bellerin isn’t going to win himself much outside support in this case. The 24-year-old rarely lets other people’s opinions prevent him from speaking his mind though, so he’s unlikely to care much.