With 20 minutes remaining, and the match still goalless, Mikel Arteta turned to his bench but had very few attacking options at his disposal.
Instead he sent on Mikel Merino as an auxiliary centre forward, and the Spaniard repaid him with two goals to win the game.
It was a dream impact from the substitute, and just what we needed after we had toiled our way through the match until then.
“Yeah, for sure,” the boss said afterwards. “Especially in the first half. The first 20 minutes, we weren’t at our best, giving so many balls away, so many simple things not doing it at the standards that are required.
“The second half was very different, the rhythm, the purpose, the quality, and then the subs that made a huge impact, especially obviously Mikel demanding him to play in a position that he's never played and delivered the two goals in the manner that he's done it.”
During his pre-match press conference Arteta had called upon his squad to step up in the absence of so many forwards, and Merino answered that call emphatically.
“The boys were buzzing for him,” Arteta added. “They were buzzing for Kai, we were just talking to him there because everybody was really down about it (his injury). And the team has a different way, different resources, different tools to win football matches and stay competitive. And today we needed that win, and especially in the manner that it happened, I think it's going to be really helpful.”
The boss also pointed to a significant contribution from his skipper Martin Odegaard.
“He was tremendous. I mean, everybody raised the level in the second half because the way we were playing in the first half, it wasn’t going to be enough to win it in the manner that we done it and we knew that and we stepped up the level and I think we deserved to win the game.
“We need to continue to go, taking all the great things that we're doing as a team and individually, but as well, recognising as well that the level that we played the first 20, 30 minutes is not going to be enough and we have to maintain that.”
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