Oleksandr Zinchenko called them “champions games” after the Premier League season took another crazy turn. He had a few days like that when he was winning titles with Manchester City. He thinks that Arsenal’s “balls” at Aston Villa show that the Gunners aren’t going to give up without a fight. Arsenal was behind twice, but won in the most exciting way possible in stoppage time.
Then, Arsenal’s title rival, City, lost points at Nottingham Forest. Just three days after losing the top spot, Arsenal were back on top again. The mood went from hopelessness to confidence after a win against Villa’s goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
Oleksandr Zinchenko chooses Arsenal “winner”
Last Wednesday, when Arsenal lost to City at the Emirates, they couldn’t have been any more down. It felt like the end of the world and the end of their title hopes for Mikel Arteta’s team. At Villa Park, they looked tired and were down 2-1 at halftime.
Arteta gave a pep talk to the team, which made them feel so good that they couldn’t wait to get back on the field. Zinchenko tied it up, but in the last 10 minutes, both teams went for the win, and those are the moments when titles are won and lost. Jorginho, who came to the team from Chelsea in January, scored the first goal in extra time. His shot hit the bar, bounced off Martinez’s head, and went into the goal.
Zinchenko said: “I would say that everyone here, and I’ve said already in the past many times, this group of people can achieve a lot of good things in the future if we work hard together and keep going in this way. It’s about the Premier League as well, it’s the strongest league in the world and these kind of games, the reaction we showed in the second half, we showed our character and this team has balls.
“I remember at City, we were also like losing, down at half-time, but in the second half, the response from the team was perfect and I would call these kind of dramatic games, they are like ‘champions games’. I’m not saying anything about the title yet because there’s still a lot of games to play but this is the sort of character that you need, the direction we need and that is the key.”
