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Gunners back on top after late drama at Villa Park
This is the stuff that champions are made of as Arsenal showed true grit to reclaim top spot in the Premier League.
Following a gut-wrenching defeat to title rivals Man City boss Mikel Arteta asked his Gunners to rise off the canvas.
Knocked down inside five minutes and struck by another sucker-punch before the interval, they looked out for the count.
But Arsenal refused to lie down and with the prospect of losing more points, landed two late, killer blows.
They were then celebrating again a few hours later as City dropped two points on the road at Nottingham Forest.
It was drama of the highest order that sealed it in the third minute of injury-time when the two sides had already shared four goals between them. Set up by Gabriel Martinelli, Jorginho let fly with a first-time shot from the edge of the area.
The ball cannoned off the crossbar, hit Villa keeper Emi Martinez on the head and bounced in.
Cue bedlam in the visiting enclosure, the dugouts and press box where two sets of club analysts had to be separated by stewards.
Still the game wasn’t over. Villa had a corner, Martinez went up for it – hoping to pen a fairytale ending – only to see Fabio Vieira escape upfield and feed Martinelli who ran it into an empty net.
Cue another dollop of unfettered joy. Arteta could hardly keep the smile off his face afterwards.
He admitted: “It’s been a rollercoaster but we showed a lot of resilience, quality and character.
“With the performance against Man City and getting nothing out of it, you come here 72 hours later and are one down inside five minutes.
“At half-time I said to the guys, ‘ We have to look each other in the face and do much more if we want to win this game’.”
Asked if this was the stuff of champions, he added: “You have to win games in the 94th sand 96th-minutes, you are going to have to score from set-plays, score when you’re down to 10 men. They showed a lot of emotional quality.” This was a cracker.
The tone was set inside five minutes when Ollie Watkins collected Matt Cash’s pass and had William Saliba in front of him but one quick stepover and cross- shot later and Villa had the lead.
Arsenal regained their composure, were pressing and were given a huge helping hand by Tyrone Mings.
He inexplicably headed Ben White’s cross into play and Bukayo Saka smashed the gift into the roof of the net.
At this stage, Villa were rocking but managed to produce the goal of the game.
B ou b a c a r K a ma r a swapped passes with Philippe Coutinho and then set Alex Moreno clear. The Spaniard’s pull-back was stepped over by Emi Buendia for Coutinho to control and finish from the edge of the area.
Arsenal continued on the front foot and when Villa switched off from a corner, the ball found Oleksandr Zinchenko and that wand of a left foot rattled a shot home.
It was breathless stuff and continued as such into the third minute of injury-time when Jorginho’s strike found the back of the net before Martinelli’s clincher.
Villa boss Unai Emery said: “I’m very disappointed – it’s embarrassing to lose two matches 2- 4 at home in front of our supporters.”