Mikel Arteta heaps praise on Arsenal for showing ‘character’ in their 2-1 win over Aston Villa

Mikel Arteta once again praised the mentality of his Arsenal side as they quickly reacted to an Aston Villa equalizer to secure another victory and maintain their perfect Premier League start.

Gabriel Martinelli hit the winner against Villa on a night of questionable goalkeeping at the Emirates Stadium where a deserved 2-1 success means the Gunners remain top of the table with five wins from five.

Former Arsenal goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez had earlier gifted Gabriel Jesus the opener as Steven Gerrard’s side slipped to a fourth defeat, heaping the pressure on the former England captain.

The visitors had briefly leveled courtesy of substitute Douglas Luiz scoring direct from a corner but Martinelli’s winner came just three minutes later.

‘That’s the mentality we want to show as a team and the character we want to show, to react immediately,’ said Arteta.

‘The disappointment (of) conceding goals is part of the game, like giving the ball away or having a bad action is.

But the Spaniard insisted that the Gunners must make sure their progress continues

‘It’s about the next action, the next phase and again, when you play in front of this crowd that helps. The energy they generate is just amazing.

‘We are really happy because we are winning football matches that we deserve to win the way we are performing and playing. We need to continue.

‘As I always said I think there are a lot of things that we can improve and you could see that in the second half.

‘But the way we played in the first half – the amount of chances, how dominant we were, the energy that we played with – is really pleasing as a coach. Go to the next one.’

Douglas Luiz equalized for the visitors directly from a corner in the 74th minute of the game