Arsenal sent an important message to Manchester City on Saturday: if you think this title race is over, then think again, because we’re not going away.
I met Mikel Arteta pitch-side before the game at Aston Villa and we talked about the mindset his players had to have for this encounter, especially as they were kicking off at 12.30pm, before City faced Nottingham Forest at 3pm.
Psychologically, Arsenal had to make their mark by showing their rivals they had reacted to that midweek defeat with a win.
When City’s players arrived at Forest, they’d have known Arsenal were losing 2-1 to Villa. Happy days, they would have thought. But by the time City kicked off, Arsenal had won 4-2 and the pressure was back on Pep Guardiola’s team.
Arteta’s players showed so much character and personality at Villa to keep going, to keep believing, to keep playing their brand of football and ultimately, that ended their frustrating run of three Premier League games without a win.
I was particularly impressed with Arsenal’s two serial trophy-winners Oleksandr Zinchenko and Jorginho.
They were the driving force and helped drag their team-mates over the winning line at Villa Park.
After losing to Everton, drawing with Brentford, and losing to City, this was a significant win and a response of potential champions.
But Arsenal know City are chasing and Arteta’s men need to maintain this mindset and do it all over again at Leicester next week.