Morning Gunners fans
Mikel Arteta reserved special praise for Reiss Nelson – the game changer at the Emirates.
The second half substitute made the equaliser for Ben White, before scoring a 96th minute winner.
After the game, the Spaniard said of his team: “They never gave up. There is nothing like sharing those great moments with your people. “I’m so happy for him [Reiss Nelson].”
Although the Gunners boss admitted he completely lost his bearings in the wild celebrations.
“It’s crazy, you lose sight of where you are,” said Arteta after the game.
“I started to run and didn’t really know where I was running to. I saw a kid here next to me, then I ran into security. But just looking in the faces of everybody, the players and our supporters with those smiles, the joy in their eyes, it’s just great.
“It was an extraordinary day, a beautiful experience at the end. Very dramatic, but worth living it, because it was a great end.”
Nelson, himself, talked about his winning goal.
“It dropped onto my right,” he said.
“I wanted to hit it with my laces on my right but I saw the defender coming out, so I decided to shift it onto my left and then just had to hit through it, aim for the top bins – something like that!
“I’m just happy it went in – I’m delighted with it. I didn’t start the game, but I came on with the instructions just to play forward, try and get as many one-on-one opportunities as I can to create something, and I did.”
Emile Smith Rowe was a substitute who was subbed off during the dramatic 3-2 win over Bournemouth.
He lasted less than 50 minutes – with concerns he may have suffered a recurrence of his injury.
However, Mikel Arteta has revealed why he made the decision to sub the midfielder, who has missed five months of the season this campaign, after he had come on initially for the injured Leandro Trossard.
“We didn’t plan to throw him in so early in the game,” Arteta said.
We knew it would be difficult for him to last for 70 minutes after he’d had five months out, but I think he had a good impact. In the end, I felt that we needed something else, especially on the left, as we were attracting more players onto that side so we made the decision to change.”
Reiss Nelson was the hero for the Gunners, making the equaliser before firing home the winner deep into injury time in the 3-2 win over Bournemouth.
The injury-plagued winger may not have been in the squad, if Eddie Nketiah was fit.
But, Nketiah took to Twitter to praise the star for his display.
He tweeted: “Reiss Nelson, game changer!!!”
