Mikel Arteta hailed an “extraordinary day” in Arsenal’s charge towards the title and said their remarkable last-ditch victory over Bournemouth will strengthen their belief going into the last 12 games.
Arsenal remain five points clear of Manchester City after Reiss Nelson’s spectacular winner, which came in the 97th minute and had seemed improbable when the visitors took a two-goal lead. The scenes of celebration around the Emirates Stadium were as jubilant as at any point in its history and it felt a pivotal moment in the campaign.
Nelson’s effort was the kind of moment champions look back on in years to come. “It was an extraordinary day and a beautiful experience at the end,” Arteta said. “Dramatic, but worth living it because there was the greatest end to it.”
It was Arsenal’s fourth straight win and they have comprehensively banished the doubts wrought by a spell that brought one point from their previous three. “Winning four games in the Premier League is very difficult and we have done three in a week, which is even harder,” Arteta said. “We had done it in various ways and that should generate more belief.”
Arteta had high praise for the usually peripheral Nelson, a second-half substitute who had played 64 top-flight minutes this season before arriving midway through the second half, quickly setting up the equaliser for Ben White. He now has three goals and an assist in 2022-23.
“I always saw the potential, the talent and the desire for him to do it but he’s at a different level right now,” he said. “I think emotionally, the experiences that he had helped him. He was knocking on the door, he’s been training really well and it’s a good lesson for me and for the coaches that we need him.”
Arsenal’s bench piled on to the pitch after Nelson’s winner and there was pandemonium in the stands. Arteta described it as “probably the loudest and most emotional moment we have lived together.”
Gary O’Neil, the Bournemouth manager, bemoaned a loss that cancelled out the achievement of going 2-0 up through Philip Billing and Marcos Senesi. “To make it the game it was took a lot of effort,” he said. “I’m proud of what they produced but it’s hard not to feel anything but gutted. The lads are very down: to put in so much work and to come up seconds short is a big blow. They’ll be fine, devastated right now, but we’ll get back to work.”
Billing’s goal came after 9.11 seconds via an audacious kick-off routine. “It was something we thought of the day before yesterday maybe,” O’Neil said. “You don’t expect to score from it, but we thought we could catch them with it and we did.”
