Mikel Arteta praised his side’s resilience as they fought from a goal down to secure a comeback win against Newcastle away from home.
Nick Woltemade opened the scoring in the first half after a penalty decision was overturned for Viktor Gyokeres, and Arsenal struggled towards the end of the first half.
The final 30 minutes saw Arteta change his strategy from last week’s fixtures and throw everything he had at the league’s best defence, and it worked for him. First, Mikel Merino levelled the tie in the final 10 minutes before Gabriel thumped home a winner with seconds to go to snatch a victory that puts them firmly back into the title race.
Arteta, when asked how he felt after the game, stated: "Pride and I think we fully deserved the win. The way we played and performed and competed. The chances we generated, we deserved to win. We did it into a dramatic way but we deserved to win.
Mikel Arteta was very happy with his side after their comeback
|REUTERS
"That is how you get to a different level. By going through those moments and take those lessons from it. It was a massive opportunity to show who we are. For ourselves because they are a terrific team and they are so difficult to play against. The level of consistency and quality we showed today was top.
"I think the way we played. The courage, the determination and the quality we played with today. We want to achieve the next level and to do that you have to come to these places and when there are some results yesterday, we wanted to show that conviction and desire to do it.
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"You have to come to this place and you have to win. You have to find a way to do it and it was tremendous."
Arteta also defended his attacking substitutions, explaining that Arsenal had no choice but to take risks in pursuit of victory. "We had to throw everything we had. I think Pope was exceptional. Fair play to him but we believed and I think we fully deserved to win it."
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Mikel Arteta changed his tactics from last week and it got him results
|REUTERS
One of the game’s talking points came with a penalty decision involving Gyokeres. Initially awarded, it was later overturned by VAR – a decision Arteta felt was unnecessary.
"If it is not a clear and obvious error, VAR should not intervene. It is clear that VAR does not have to intervene because it is a penalty," he said.
Former Newcastle player Mikel Merino also spoke after the match. He revealed to the BBC: “I just said a long time ago but still big memories. Every time I come back here it's a great day for me. Also, all friends here, very happy to come and experience St. James' Park again now as an away footballer. A day full of emotions for me and to come back and score the equaliser is magical.
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"It was pretty similar to one I score here for Newcastle, in the same goal as well. Really happy, that's something I put a lot of work in, headers to try and train every single day in the game, if you have a chance to have a header to have it as well as you do in training.
"Every single Premier League game's is an opportunity for us, not only to win points, not only to make a statement, but also to show everybody what this club is about, to show the character and the mentality we have. There's no better place than here, no better way then the way we have done it coming back from a really difficult situation. I'm really proud of everyone in there, not only the players, the staff and the fans who came here to support us. Just buzzing and ready to keep going."
Mikel Merino scored the equaliser against his old club
|REUTERS
Arsenal will look to take the positives from the game at St James’ Park as they get set to face Olympiacos in their Champions League tie on Tuesday.