Unai Emery was proud of Aston Villa’s attitude after his side came from two goals down to draw with Arsenal in the Premier League on Saturday evening.
The visitors were on the back foot at 2-0 down as the match reached the hour mark, but they responded with two goals in eight minutes to turn the game around.
Villa also held firm in the final few minutes, putting their bodies on the line to earn a draw at Emirates Stadium.
“We showed resilience, we showed mentality today,” Emery said.
“In 90 minutes, we struggled sometimes when they were dominating the match.
“In some moments we needed to be defensively strong and we needed the goalkeeper, but we had our moments to control the game with the ball, to get into their box and to be close to scoring a goal.
“At 2-0, it was very difficult. We never gave up and never thought that it was impossible. We were speaking before the match and at half-time about being resilient and that if we could score one goal we’d have possibilities.
“We showed this mentality, achieved one goal and continued to try to push for the draw.”
Youri Tielemans got the comeback started with a superb diving header before Ollie Watkins netted in North London again, turning home Matty Cash’s cross.
Both sides had chances to win the match, and Emery was pleased that his side kept pushing after levelling the scores.
He said: “After it went to 2-2, the mentality was the same: try to defend, try to get our moments and to score the third goal.
“They created two very good chances and one at the end with Trossard, and they had some action in our box, but we also had shots from Youri and Lamare with the possibility to score.”
