[New post] ‘Overwhelmed, madness, phenomenal’ – Mikel Arteta stunned by Arsenal comeback, praises players and supporters for ‘taking the initiative’
Connor Andrews posted: " Mikel Arteta has told talkSPORT about his utter disbelief at Arsenal's comeback win over Bournemouth. The Gunners found themselves a goal down after just nine seconds and heading for defeat with 30 minutes to play when the Cherries doubled the" talkSPORT
Mikel Arteta has told talkSPORT about his utter disbelief at Arsenal's comeback win over Bournemouth.
The Gunners found themselves a goal down after just nine seconds and heading for defeat with 30 minutes to play when the Cherries doubled their lead.
Arsenal were in huge trouble with an hour to playBut ended up with their biggest celebrations of the season
However, Thomas Partey struck back, before substitute Reiss Nelson returned to assist Ben White and then score a 97th minute winner with the final kick of the game.
The Emirates erupted as Arsenal restored their five point lead over Manchester City, and again showed the character of champions.
Asked to describe his feelings post-match, Arteta barely knew what to tell talkSPORT.
"Overwhelmed I would say," he began after a pause. "It was madness from the first second in the game.
"We knew what they could do, they did it, executed really well, I think we defended really poorly and then you have a mountain to climb, so we started, we tried and tried and tried, generated chances, set pieces, corners and crosses, but we didn't manage to score a goal."
Arsenal were unable to find the net for more than an hour after Dominic Solanke's opener, and then inexplicably it was a two goal deficit from a Marcos Senesi corner.
Arsenal kept going, with Nelson the inspiration
It was then up to the Premier League leaders to show their mettle, and Arteta explained how they did it.
He said: "Suddenly we are 2-0 down after a set play and then you look at yourselves and say 'what do we do as a team? What do we do with our supporters?'
"What we did is take the initiative, have a lot of discipline in what we have to do and then we scored the first goal.
"When we did that the atmosphere changed, the energy changed and then it was down to moments that you have to produce in a game where there's 10 players behind the ball, and the subs were incredibly good today to help us do that."
Asked about Reiss Nelson's winner, Arteta was thrilled to see the young winger respond after an injury lay-off and being left out of the team.
"I'm delighted for him, he really deserved it," the Spaniard said.
"He had a tough few months with really bad injuries and then with my decision to leave him out of the squad twice.
"But he trains really well, the boys love him, and today he shows that he really wants it and he's at the level to deliver something special when we need it.
"It was incredible, in the last second of the game, just the emotion, hugging people, looking at the joy in the eyes of every one of our supporters, it was phenomenal."
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