Arsenal’s victory at Aston Villa showed ‘mentality of champions’

And it allowed Mikel Arteta’s men to reclaim their place at the top of the Premier League table, two points above Manchester City after their draw at Nottingham Forest.

Off the back of a string of difficult results, losing to City and Everton as well as drawing to Brentford in their previous three league games, Arsenal went to Villa Park in a win-at-all-costs situation, looking to stop the rot in a game which could easily have been another banana skin.

The nerves heading into the game were compounded by Villa’s opener just five minutes in and, despite Bukayo Saka rifling in a volleyed equaliser 10 minutes after, it felt like the game was getting away from the Gunners when Philippe Coutinho put the Villains 2-1 up on the half-hour mark. 

But Arsenal are a different beast this season and, despite their temporary blip, the team once again show the mentality of a team capable of winning it all. 

It was two of the more experienced heads who clawed Arsenal back into the game and the lead with Oleksandr Zinchenko’s first goal for the club levelling matters and Jorginho firing home in stoppage time to turn the game around – the latter effort going down as a 93rd-minute own goal for former Arsenal keeper Emi Martinez.

Gabriel Martinelli added late gloss when walking the ball into an empty net, after Martinez went up for a corner, and we have now reached the stage of the season where performances aren’t the be-all and end-all.

We know Arsenal are a good side, but they need to pick up points at every opportunity, especially with City slipping up and conceding late at Forest.

The Gunners still show signs of naivety, which was particularly evident during last week’s home defeat against the defending champions in which the experience gap told, but Arsenal have continually shown that they have the mentality to go all the way. 

The wise heads of Jorginho, Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus – who have all been involved in winning title charges – will be extremely valuable for Arsenal during the run-in and their leadership is clearly having a significant impact on this young team.  

Now Arsenal travel to the King Power Stadium to face Leicester City on Saturday afternoon as they look to build on last weekend’s win and regain their momentum.