An injury-time goal from Gabriel Magalhaes earned Arsenal a last-gasp Premier League victory at Newcastle United on Sunday.
One week after Gabriel Martinelli rescued a point with a goal in added time at home to Manchester City, Mikel Arteta's side again showed their resilience with another late show, this time on Tyneside.
Newcastle had taken a first-half lead thanks to a header from record-signing Nic Woltemade and were closing in on what would have been only their second league win of the campaign.
But six minutes from time, substitute Mikel Merino rose to meet a Declan Rice cross to flick a header into the net via the back post to level the scores.
And six minutes into added time, the comeback was complete when goalkeeper Nick Pope, who had produced a number of excellent stops during the game, was caught flapping at a Martin Odegaard cross getting no where near the ball allowing defender Gabriel to head home.
“Unbelievable, nothing better than a late winner in football,” said Gunners forward Bukayo Saka. “Speechless, I'm so happy.”
“Pride and I think we fully deserved the win,” added manager Mikel Arteta, whose side moved back into second place, two points behind leaders Liverpool. “The way we played and performed and competed. The chances we generated, we deserved to win. We did it into a dramatic way but we deserved to win.
“That is how you get to a different level. By going through those moments and take those lessons from it. It was a massive opportunity to show who we are. For ourselves because they are a terrific team and they are so difficult to play against. The level of consistency and quality we showed today was top.”
There was controversy in the first half after Arsenal were awarded a penalty when Nick Pope was adjudged to have fouled Viktor Gyokeres, only for the decision to be reversed after VAR asked referee Jarred Gillett to look at the incident on the pitchside monitor.
“After review, the Newcastle goalkeeper plays the ball and there is no foul. The final decision is drop ball,” Gillett announced to the crowd much to home fans' delight and Arsenal's fury.
“There are a few things we can speak about, for example the penalty,” said Saka. For me, if we have VAR it is for a clear and obvious error and the fact that it took the ref that long to decide shows it is not a clear and obvious error.
“It is things like this that always go against us but today we got what we deserved and that's why we are all so happy. It doesn't matter now, does it?”
Artea added: “If it is not a clear and obvious error, VAR should not intervene. It is clear that VAR does not have to intervene because it is a penalty.”
It was little more than Arsenal deserved on an afternoon when Pope denied the hugely impressive Eberechi Eze twice, Bukayo Saka and Jurrien Timber either side of the overturned penalty decision, while Leandro Trossard also cracked the post.
But having come so close to winning it, defeat was a bitter pill to swallow for Newcastle manager Eddie Howe, who saw Tino Livramento carried off on a stretcher ahead of Wednesday night's Uefa Champions League trip to Union Saint-Gilloise.
With Alexander Isak, who had repeatedly been the scourge of Arsenal in meetings between the sides in recent years, having left in the summer, it will have pleased Howe to see Woltemade hit the back of the net again.
The big German scored the winner against Wolves earlier this month and repeated the trick today outmuscling Gabriel, who went down looking for a free-kick, to head Sandro Tonali's delivery into the bottom corner.
But it was not enough this time round as the Magpies, like their home loss against champions Liverpool in August, fell to a late body blow against title-chasing opposition.
“Two really late goals here at home hurts,” admitted Howe, whose team lie 15th in the table, after one win and three draws in six games. “We have to reflect and acknowledge that we weren't at our best. There was not lack of effort but from a footballing side, it wasn't quite there.
“That was probably the key thing, the number of corners. I think [substitute Martin] Odegaard made a difference to their overall performance. The weight of pressure eventually told. No lack of effort but the little details have cost us.”
