Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta singled out Jorginho for his “tremendous” performance in the Gunners’ dramatic 4-2 win over Aston Villa on Saturday lunchtime.
The Gunners were battling fatigue and sapped confidence ahead of the trip to the West Midlands, having been knocked off the top of the Premier League table by Manchester City in midweek.
Seeking to get one over his former club, Unai Emery’s front-footed Aston Villa side went ahead twice in the first half, as Ollie Watkins and Philippe Coutinho struck either side of Bukayo Saka’s thunderous volley.
However, Oleksandr Zinchenko fired home Arsenal’s second equaliser of the day before a chaotic six minutes of stoppage time, where Emiliano Martinez’s own goal and Gabriel Martinelli’s tap-in sent the Gunners back to the top.
Having impressed against Man City in midweek, Jorginho was named in the starting lineup once again in place of the injured Thomas Partey, and his injury-time rocket rattled the crossbar before deflecting into the back of the net off the head of ex-Arsenal goalkeeper Martinez.
Speaking to the media in his post-game press conference, Arteta admitted that he did not expect Jorginho to unleash such an attempt from range, and he hailed the Italian’s ability to make his teammates “look better”.
“I certainly didn’t see that quality of his – scoring from deep! It’s great to do that,” arsenal.com quotes the Gunners boss as saying. “The biggest quality he has is he makes the rest of the people look better, better than what you actually are.
“He’s made a huge impact already on the boys, on the staff and hopefully our supporters can see that as well and give him the support he needs. I thought he was tremendous today.”
Following his unfortunate own goal, Martinez attempted to go from zero to hero as he went up for a last-minute corner, but Arsenal cleared the danger and set Fabio Vieira and Martinelli away on the counter-attack.
Vieira’s perfectly-weighted ball found Martinelli, who had the simple job of running the full length of the Villa half to tap home into an empty net, bringing an end to one of the most enthralling games of the Premier League season.
With Manchester City being held to a 1-1 draw by Nottingham Forest later on Saturday, Arsenal sit two points clear of the champions in first place with a game in hand, and Arteta was delighted with the “emotional qualities” his side showed at Villa Park.
“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,” Arteta added.
“Now, it’s difficult because it’s been a rollercoaster and very emotional at the end. I think we showed a lot of resilience, character and quality.
“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.”
Arsenal could temporarily go five points clear of Man City when they travel to Leicester City next Saturday, before the champions kick off against Bournemouth later that evening.
