Arsenal secured a crucial 4-2 victory over Aston Villa at Villa Park, coming from behind twice to take the lead and top spot in the Premier League and the team are, like the fans, ‘bouncing’.
Villa took the lead early on through Ollie Watkins, but Bukayo Saka quickly equalised with a stunning half-volley.
Philippe Coutinho then put Villa ahead again, but Arsenal came out strong in the second half and found an equaliser through Oleksandr Zinchenko’s long-range strike.
Jorginho’s shot rebounded off Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez for an own goal before Gabriel Martinelli sealed the win.
The victory ended Arsenal’s four-match winless run and put them three points clear at the top of the table, while Villa suffered their third straight defeat.
Arsenal showed great character to come from behind twice and secure the win and will look to build on this result as they aim to challenge for the Premier League title this season.
“We showed a lot of character and resilience,” Arteta told BT Sport after the game.
“We have to take some lessons, in the first half we didn’t do the simple things right, in the second half we dominated.
“We needed a magic moment and Jorginho produced it, the boys really wanted it, especially after what happened a couple of days ag.
“If you want to be at the top you have to win games in different ways, to do it against this team and this stadium, I have to give credit to the boys, the dressing room is bouncing.
“I am really pleased with them.”
Speaking in his press conference, Arteta also confirmed that Saka is fine, despite the kicking he took all game. “He’s fine. He got kicked quite a lot today. He’s going to have to deal with that because it’s his game.”
Arteta on Joginho: “I certainly didn’t expect that from him. I thought he was tremendous today.”
Arteta on confidence: “I feel it’s back with more belief than before. Today we have to put something else and there’s still a lot of things to improve.”
Arteta on his half-time team talk: “At half time we said the moment is now, we have to raise the individual level if we want to come out and win the game.”