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Mikel Arteta explains how he inspired Arsenal comeback against Aston Villa.
Mikel Arteta has disclosed what he told his Arsenal players as they came from behind to secure a massive 4-2 victory over Aston Villa on Saturday.
The Gunners began the game winless in their past 4 matches, having let Manchester City to re-enter the title race. The Gunners twice fell down to Villa in the first half, going into halftime down 2-1.
On the hour mark, Oleksandr Zinchenko restored parity before Emiliano Martinez’s most recent late own goal changed the course of the match. In the last seconds, Gabriel Martinelli added a fourth to give Arsenal a decisive three points.
Arteta highlighted his halftime team talk with talkSPORT after the game.
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“At half-time I had to tell them, ‘What I said a few days ago is not because I think something is different, you have to do it and the moment is now, after 45 minutes it’s gone’ and they really reacted.”
Asked if he told the squad that they simply had to win, Arteta added: “It’s now, it’s now, it’s now. After that, it’s looking at each other, ‘we should have done that’.”
Arteta’s words clearly had an impact on Zinchenko, who attributed the turnaround to the boss’ impact at the break.
“The manager said the right words at half time,” Zinchenko explained. “What we needed to do on the pitch in the second half. Everyone wanted to get back out onto the pitch as soon as possible, we went out of the door even before the whistle.
“That was a good reaction from all of us. Nobody went down, everyone wanted to get the ball, show courage to win the game and we showed it in the second half.”