Arteta on late Newcastle win: "What a moment!"

After seeing us grab two late goals to send our supporters home from St James’ Park joyous, Mikel Arteta was thrilled that the footballing gods gave us what he felt we deserved from the encounter.

Late headers from Mikel Merino and Gabriel saw us turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 victory to move back to second in the Premier League table, and give us a boost heading into another big week of European and domestic action.

Big Gabi’s 96th-minute goal sparked wild scenes on the bench as Mikel and his staff toasted an excellent away win, and he was delighted that our efforts were rewarded in the end with the three-point haul our display merited.

Reflecting post-match, he said: “What a moment! This is what we do. I think the team was incredible, the way we performed, the way we competed, and at the end we deserved much more than what we were getting. Football sometimes gives you what you deserve, and today we certainly did that and we really enjoyed the moment.

“We talked about the next level, and there are moments in the season when you have to take that level up, and today, again, we demanded that. The fact that we have very difficult fixtures in the beginning as well, puts that extra level of demands on us and the team really took the game from the beginning in a manner that I need to praise them.

“You really have to be dominant emotionally in these grounds, especially when things start to go against us. When you feel you deserve more and with certain decisions and then you concede a goal - the way the team reacted to that, the way we continued to play, it was, in my opinion, outstanding.”

Once again, our bench proved to be the difference between the teams as for the fourth game in row, a substitute netted for us in Merino, while Martin Odegaard provided both assists on his comeback from injury.

Mikel was once again full of praise for all of their efforts in helping turn the tide in our favour, as we once again showed our grit to keep digging right to the end to secure a big result.

“The impactors, the players coming in made such a difference, he added. “Bringing energy, bringing in quality. Martinelli, Martin with two incredible assists, with Mikel coming from midfield and you always know that it's a threat.

“Saliba at half-time is required to do that, Myles has to come back after we get the equaliser. Unbelievable for the team.

“I think the consistency and the level that the team is showing, it gave me a really good feeling and hope for the future. We need to continue to go.”

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