Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang thanked his Arsenal team-mates for their support as he returned to the starting XI for the first time since returning from his stricken mother’s bedside.
The Gunners captain marked his first start since January 19th with a match-winning hat-trick against Leeds.
Mikel Arteta afforded his star striker compassionate leave to be with his sick mother, and Aubameyang repaid his manager’s humanity with this vintage display.
‘Everybody around the club was giving me and my mum a lot of love. I received a lot of messages. I'm proud to be part of this club,’ said Aubameyang.
‘This means a lot to me. I'm a guy who always works hard and tries to give my best for my family and my team.
‘It's been a tough time but it's time to get my smile back.
‘I'm really happy. My kids are going to be happy because they will get the match ball.
‘We knew it would be a hard game. They never gave up. They fought a lot. It was good game management.
'It was important to show that this our home, this is where we have to win games, and we did it.’
On his side’s win, Arteta said: ‘I'm very pleased with the result and very, very happy with the performance, especially in the first half against a fantastic team that make life so difficult for you.
‘We handled the situations really well. At half time I said they will never give up and that's what Leeds did, they threw everything at us.
'Every action you have to be full gas and paying so much attention. In any situation they can take advantage of it.
'You have to be very precise to find the next pass and find the movement.
'The amount of chances we created and the type of goals we scored as well, I'm really pleased. Overall there are a lot of positives.’
Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa added: ‘The victory for Arsenal was fair but when we were 4-2 we had two or three options.
‘The two halves were very different. In the first half we could have finished with a smaller margin because we could have controlled the danger they created better.
'In the second half even though we started by conceding another goal we fought a lot to try and get back into the game.
‘We could have got the third goal and we could have made the end of the game different.'