Arteta - We showed resilience, character, quality

We needed plenty of character to take three points at Aston Villa on Saturday.

In a match kicking off just 63 hours after the final whistle in Wednesday’s game against Manchester City, we twice had to come from behind before finding a late, late winner.

“t’s been a rollercoaster and very emotional at the end,” Mikel Arteta said in his post-match press conference. “I think we showed a lot of resilience, character and quality.

“The context of the game was difficult, with the performance that we had against City and getting nothing out of it. Then having to come here less than 72 hours later and finding ourselves 1-0 down after five minutes.

“We had to play the next 90 minutes and we had some difficulties in certain periods during the first half. Individually we brought the level right down and stopped doing the simple things right. At half-time we said we had to raise the individual level, we had to look each other in the face and we had to do much more if we wanted to come out and win this game.

“We altered one or two things and then we produced a very strong performance and probably should have won it earlier than we did.

“At some stage you’re going to have to win games in the 94th minute or the 96th minute. You’re going to have to score from set-plays, you’re going to have to score when you’re down to 10 men.

“It’s about winning in any context. We always talk about that and today we had a really difficult context, especially with what happened after five minutes. The team showed a lot of emotional qualities which are needed to be up there. I’m really happy with that.”