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Mikel Arteta hailed Leandro Trossard’s response to being “upset” after he came off the bench to help Arsenal earn a 2-0 win over Aston Villa.
Emi Martinez twice denied Arsenal in the opening stages, most notably palming Bukayo Saka’s goalbound effort wide, but Villa’s Ollie Watkins had his head in his hands after scuffing wide from close range.
Watkins had another opportunity in the second period and his certain goal was heroically denied by David Raya – which allowed Trossard to put Arsenal in front with his first touch before Thomas Partey sealed all three points.
Trossard stroked past Martinez into the bottom corner but did not react before his team-mates mobbed him in celebration.
Arteta said: “First of all when you don’t get picked they are certain ways to react. He is upset but he is upset to show on the pitch how good he is, not upset and then come in and complain (he) wasn’t playing, that is a huge quality.
“The boys who unfortunately didn’t have the minutes are supporting the other ones and that’s exactly what we need.
“We have two great left wingers that play in that position and it’s always a challenge, but you know you will get that quality on certain and specific games. Today I decided to play Gabi (Martinelli) who had a good performance and after that we had to change the game, Trossard came on and made the difference so big credit to him.”
Villa started the second half the brighter of the two teams and could have taken the lead after Amadou Onana’s deflected effort bounced off the crossbar and Watkins nodded the rebound towards goal, but Raya magnificently saved to keep the scores goalless.
Arteta admitted his side faced a tough challenge but was happy to come out with all three points.
“Today we found a way to win because the team showed personality and understood the game better and better apart from those 25 minutes in the second half,” he said.
“When we needed to rely on certain individuals, we did like when David made a good save and when we made the changes, the impact it had was tremendous.
“When a team starts to be equipped that way and navigates different situations in the match it becomes a team that can win in any place.”
Defeat for Aston Villa meant Unai Emery lost to his former employers Arsenal for just the second time in his career.
Emery bemoaned his side’s missed chances which cost them a result but was happy with the way his side competed against a team he feels will be in contention to win the Premier League.
“Arsenal is a tough game for us,” Emery said.
“We competed well, they have an advantage because they are mature and both players and coaches are strong.
“The mentality they have is high level and they are in contention to win the Premier League.
“Before they scored a goal, we had two very good chances to score. We had to be clinical, last year we did, today we didn’t.
“We had very good chances – the second half was key, when we had the chances to score we didn’t do that. They were clinical with two actions but I am more or less proud of how we played.
“Today we lost but competed well, and we were feeling comfortable with the chances we were creating. Some players have work to do getting better physically and understanding how we want to play.