Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta expects Jorginho to become a firm fan favourite
- Oscar Sanders
- 19 February 2023
Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal fans will "fall in love" with Jorginho after the January arrival shone in a last-gasp victory at Aston Villa that took the Gunners back to the top of the Premier League.
Having taken just one point from three games heading into Saturday's contest, Arsenal fell behind twice before scoring two goals in stoppage time to win 4-2.
Ollie Watkins and Philippe Coutinho struck to have Villa leading on two separate occasions, Bukayo Saka and Oleksandr Zinchenko both scoring fine equalisers for the visitors.
Jorginho had stood out on a tough day for Arsenal and his injury-time effort cannoned off the crossbar before bouncing in off the head of Emiliano Martinez.
The former Arsenal goalkeeper tried to make amends for his own goal by going up for a late corner, but instead it was cleared and Gabriel Martinelli tapped into an empty net to secure the three points.
Jorginho, who joined from London rivals Chelsea, had his name sung by the visiting fans at full time and Arteta feels the Italy international will win over any doubters who questioned his signing.
"They are going to fall in love with him," he told beIN Sports.
"The same way the players have and the coaching staff have here because of his personality, how humble he is, because he makes everybody better and that's a huge quality."
Arteta hailed the reaction of his team to come from behind and win while admitting any drop-off in performance leaves them open to defeat.
"I think the last five minutes tell me how much we want it and that we have the quality, the unity and the belief that we can do it," he added.
"When, individually, we are not at the level and we don't do the simple things right we become a really average team.
"When we have clarity and intentions and we raise the level we can beat anybody and they've done it."
Villa head coach Unai Emery said it was "embarrassing" to have lost two consecutive home games 4-2 after Leicester won at Villa Park by the same scoreline a fortnight ago.
It is now three defeats in a row for Emery's side and captain John McGinn is keen for the run to end there as they prepare to face Everton.
"It's a really frustrating defeat," he told the club's official website.
"That's three in a row now and it's something we need to amend quickly.
"There were parts of it that were positive; we certainly took the game to Arsenal.
"We did have chances to go and win the game. It was one of those games that was good for the neutral because it was an entertaining watch, but it's not how we want to play at home.
"We want to control games. The manager's given us a great platform to build on a play here. We didn't manage to do that (against Arsenal)."
