Bukayo Saka has given his verdict on Arsenal's late comeback against Aston Villa as the Premier League title race heats up. Jorginho struck the underside of the crossbar from range in the dying embers of the clash and, as his effort rebounded, Emi Martinez provided the finishing touch by unintentionally nodding the ball into his own net.
Then, moments later, the former Gunners goalkeeper was centre of attention again. Martinez joined his teammates in Arsenal box for a corner in a last ditch effort to clinch an equaliser. But, William Saliba's headed clearance started a counter-attack which ended with Gabriel Martinelli slotting the ball into an empty net.
After what was an emotional rollercoaster of an afternoon at Villa Park, Saka was delighted with winning the crucial three points. In a short but sweet message, he tweeted: "That one felt good."
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During the second-half, Saka appeared to be carrying a knock which was causing him to limp. But, instead of coming off, the England international soldiered on.
Speaking to the press after the game, Mikel Arteta provided a positive update on Saka, brushing off speculation that the winger is injured. The Arsenal boss said: "He’s fine.
"He got kicked quite a lot today again. But he’s going to have to deal with that, not every week, but every three days and sometimes in training as well because it’s his game and teams are not stupid and they want to stop him. That’s why we need to protect him."
Then, on how the tie went, Arteta added: "It’s difficult now because it’s been a rollercoaster and was very emotional at the end. I think we showed a lot of resilience character and quality.
"The context of the game was difficult, with the performance that we had against City and having to come here after less than 72 hours and then after 5 minutes you are down. Then you have to play the next 90 minutes like we are as a team right now.
"We had some difficulties in the first half collectively and individually we brought the level right down and we stopped doing the simple things right," the Spaniard said. "At half time we said the moment is now, we have to raise the individual level, we have to look each other in the face if we want to come out and win the game because we can.
"Then we altered a few things and we produced a very strong performance. Probably we should have won it earlier than we have done."
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