Mikel Arteta and his backroom staff were filmed celebrating Arsenal’s winning goal against Manchester City by a fan in the stands on Sunday.
Gabriel Martinelli scored Arsenal’s winning goal against Manchester City at the weekend, with the Gunners securing a 1-0 win after a long wait for a league victory in the fixture.
With just a few minutes left on the clock, the goal was always likely to be a winner, and it was celebrated as such by the players, the fans, and the Arsenal staff in the stadium.
One fan happened to be filming as the goal went in, and they caught the reactions of Mikel Arteta and his coaching team on camera, as well as the substitutes running over to celebrate with their teammates.
Gabriel Martinelli's goal from this angle and Arteta's celebration was just electrifying, look at the atmosphere 🫰🏻🥹https://t.co/218zkQOZaX
— Selorm (@selormafc_) October 9, 2023
They weren’t the only ones filming the goal, and another angle captured the moment the players went over to celebrate with the fans.
William Saliba is one of us. I hope he never leaves, because he proper gets it pic.twitter.com/lbh8Qi0AIl
— H (@ClockEndH) October 8, 2023
Arsenal have been accused of being overly emotional celebrating goals recently, but these moments are what football is about.
If you can’t celebrate a goal because you’re worried about an equaliser, or because you think Arsenal might lose a game later to nullify the result, there hardly seems any point following the sport in the first place.
Arsenal will concede late equalisers when they think they’ve won the game. Arsenal will lose matches to cancel out what seemed like big wins. But that’s all the more reason to enjoy these moments while you have the chance.
If you’re only willing to celebrate when a trophy is in the players’ hands, you’re going to spend most of every season feeling miserable.
Thankfully, most of the Arsenal fans and players in attendance at the Emirates Stadium appear to know that they should make the most of every victory.