Gabriel Martinelli told Mikel Arteta in no uncertain terms that he was ready to make amends for his fatal midweek penalty miss - even after a sleepless night.
The Brazilian agonisingly saw his spot-kick saved as Arsenal crashed out of the Europa League at home to Sporting Lisbon via tense shootout in their round of 16 second leg. But Martinelli, 21, wanted to put things right as soon as possible, telling his boss to select him for Sunday's Premier League clash with Crystal Palace.
Arteta trusted the forward and was rewarded with an instrumental performance, as Arsenal ran out 4-1 winners at the Emirates to forge an eight-point gap between them and title rivals Manchester City. Martinelli took less than half an hour to break the deadlock, vindicating his manager's faith after a conversation behind closed doors on Saturday.
"I asked him yesterday how he was and he said, 'I want to be in the team'," Arteta revealed post-match. "He takes responsibility, chances and when you see him running around the next day with that energy, honestly I wasn't very concerned about it."
The 21-year-old's reaction speaks volumes of his maturity, as did his own comments after the win.
"It's life," Martinelli admitted when asked about his penalty miss on Thursday. "Not every game you are going to score and play well. Of course I was sad and spent the whole night thinking about that penalty but it is over.
"I scored a goal today and we got the three points, the most important thing."
Although the Brazil international was a constant threat against Palace, team-mate Bukayo Saka was the star of the show with two goals and an assist. Saka, fresh from winning Young Player of the Year at the London Football Awards, created Arsenal's first goal and Martinelli duly paid tribute to his provider.
Have your say! Will Arsenal win the Premier League title? Join the debate in the comments section.
"It was a good goal, good pass from B [Saka's nickname]," he went on to say. "I don't know if it was to me or someone else but it was a good finish with my weak foot, good goal."
Martinelli added: "We are very happy, we needed that win and as I always say, we approach the games as a final and we did that today."
Heading into the international break with a stronghold on first place, as Arteta hailed his side's response to the disappointment of losing to Sporting and seeing their European campaign come to an end.
"I am really pleased with how they reacted to Thursday," the Spaniard declared. "Really happy to perform the way we did after losing two big players [centre-backs William Saliba and Takehiro Tomyasu ] for us."
