Two mosh pits after the ball bounced off Emiliano Martinez's head and into the goal in stoppage time showed the importance of Arsenal's three points at Villa Park.
There was the one everybody saw, between the players and fans in the away end, then another by the dugouts as those on the bench spilt onto the pitch.
After a three-game winless run, a win was essential for Arsenal. If you were away and saw Arsenal had won 4-2 with an expected goals (xG) of 3.14 from 20 shots, you may assume Mikel Arteta's side were back to their best. Instead, both their strengths and weaknesses were on full display for 96 minutes.
The good
Ollie Watkins' opener for Villa may have fitted a pattern of Arsenal gifting goals, but the response of one player was particularly striking. Jorginho bounded around the team, offering words of encouragement, but crucially took action rather than just talking.
Ben White had been sat narrow in the opening 10 minutes, meaning Arsenal struggled to find ways forward. Jorginho's first action after the restart was to tell the right-back to push wider — a gesture Arteta imitated just minutes later.
From there, Arsenal looked better. Jorginho clipped a ball over the top for White overlapping on the right, which led to their first big chance of the game and also threaded a pass for Leandro Trossard to cut back inside the box from the left.
He then played a crucial role in the build-up to Bukayo Saka's equaliser, retaining the ball with lovely skill on the edge of the Villa box before finding White on the overlap again.
The 31-year-old is not the perfect midfielder. He struggled, as he often does, when the game was more stretched as he does not have the pace to take control of 50-50 duels in the way Thomas Partey does, but he kept Arsenal ticking.
Those penetrative passes and constant communication continued into the second half, with defence-splitting balls for Saka and quick words with Eddie Nketiah, Saka and Arteta. In a way, it was fitting that his one-off strike from 25 yards swung the game in Arsenal's favour.
“I certainly didn't see that quality of him (Jorginho) — scoring from deep,” Arteta joked. “The biggest quality he has is that he makes the other people look better, better than what you actually are. He's made a huge impact already.”
The bad
Arsenal's first-half performance needs addressing. The lack of intensity off the ball cost them for both Villa goals.
Like Manchester City's first goal in midweek, they were avoidable concessions. William Saliba allowed Watkins to dominate in the build-up to the opener after Oleksandr Zinchenko's error in possession. In the second half, he was much quicker to engage the striker, managed to force him wide and even took the ball off him a few times.
For Coutinho's goal, nobody put pressure on Boubacar Kamara when he carried the ball over halfway. Martin Odegaard expected somebody else to engage the ball, Jorginho waited too long to do so and then the back line didn't track the runners.
Aston Villa's Philippe Coutinho scores his side's second goal against Arsenal (Photo: Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)
It all helps explain why Arteta said “we are not set and we are not living the game like we should” in relation to the second goal.
While Arsenal did not put pressure on the ball like they usually do, how decisive and precise Arsenal are under pressure in possession is also important to their way of “living” games. Aside from Jorginho, Saka and White, that wasn't there in the first half, particularly with Zinchenko, who was again shooting from range uncharacteristically. As Arteta said, however, “the second half was a completely different story”.
The ugly
Ugly may be harsh. 'Grind' may be more appropriate, but Clint Eastwood didn't make The Good, The Bad and The Grind.
Either way, Arsenal had two must-does after Arteta sent them out early for the second half. One was to take control of the game and the other was to concentrate in the big moments, which they did to an extent.
After a few uncharacteristic long balls, Arsenal started playing: Odegaard was drifting into that right half-space and causing problems with how quickly he was moving the ball forward and Zinchenko was much more secure in possession. Saka, White and Jorginho's use of the ball began to look more assured, too, helping Arsenal suffocate a team in a way they haven't done since they beat Manchester United.
Saliba winning the ball off Watkins on a break was followed by an intense scramble in the Villa box, leading to the corner from which Zinchenko seized his moment.
Oleksandr Zinchenko scores Arsenal's second equaliser at Villa Park (Photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Moments kept coming as Arsenal turned the screw after the hour. More intensity off the ball from Nketiah forced Martinez to float his kicks out of play, before more turnovers created chances Nketiah and Odegaard missed either side of a miscued Gabriel header.
Defensively, centre-back Gabriel had already drifted wide to see off Leon Bailey twice. The third time, Gabriel produced a vital last-ditch tackle on the winger. That moment, alongside Aaron Ramsdale's fingertip save onto the bar from Bailey (both at 2-2), show just how important individual actions become in matches like these.
Three points will deliver a huge lift for Arteta and Arsenal, and reassure them that the sharpness and intensity that had been missing in recent weeks are returning.
Their imperfect performance at Villa Park leaves a lot to digest, but they proved they can slug it out, and every league title winner needs to do that occasionally. With a week until they return to action against Leicester City, the focus moves to raising their levels for 90 minutes, not just a half.
“The confidence is back with more belief than before because you have to turn performances into results,” Arteta added. “Against Brentford, we did that but we couldn't win because of a (referee) decision. Against Manchester City, we deserved more with the performance but in football, games are decided in the boxes.
“There's still a lot of things to improve. You don't have to produce as much as we do every single game to win. Smaller margins should be enough to win games and we have to improve that.”
(Top photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)