Having seen his team once again leave it late to win a game that looked like slipping away, Mikel Arteta feels that victories such as our 4-3 triumph over Luton Town really galvanise our squad for future challenges.
Having led 2-1 at half-time, we soon found ourselves trailing 3-2 before swiftly pulling level, and in the 96th minute Declan Rice popped up with a winning goal to spark jubilant scenes, such as those seen against Manchester United, Manchester City and Brentford already this season.
And the boss thinks these type of victories are extra special as they help forge an unbreakable bond between our players, who know that they’ll all never give up when the going gets tough.
“I think it gives a special chemistry between them to live moments like that in football,” Mikel reflected post-match at Kenilworth Road. “That’s the beauty of it, it’s not about you, it’s about doing it with a team and the energy you feel in that dressing room is something unique.
“The way we want to play, we are never satisfied with a draw - we want to win games. The risks that we take, the initiative that we take, how we suffocate the opponent, how we want to play forward and the team got rewarded. We had many other chances to score before that but we left it until the end.
“It was a beautiful match of football. Congratulations to Luton, the atmosphere they created was electric, it was special. The way they played, they made life really difficult for us, they are really well coached, they have a big spirit in the team. We had to dig really deep - especially the way we conceded the goals - to have a chance to win the game in the way that we’ve done it.”
This success was our seventh-straight win in all competitions and moves us temporarily five points clear at the top of the Premier League table. Mikel is delighted with that consistency, despite the fixtures piling up and having to rotate his team to balance the workload as well as injuries.
“Today was really difficult context after having a game three days before, another one three days before and another one three days before that,” he added.
“This is obviously an accumulative thing. We lost players as well, but the team showed the same willingness and character to win.”
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