Arsenal midfielder Jorginho has praised his team-mates for mixing it with Newcastle to keep their Premier League title hopes alive.
The Gunners blended a streetwise tenacity with moments of quality to secure a 2-0 victory which avenged a damaging defeat by the same score at St James’ Park last season.
In the process they dragged themselves back to within a point of leaders Manchester City and while Pep Guardiola’s side have a game in hand, the Gunners came through unscathed from what appeared to be their toughest remaining fixture.
Jorginho told the club’s official website: “It’s a massive win. We knew it was a tough game, to come here and win the way we did.
“There are some times you know you have to fight a lot to get the three points, and I’m just so proud of the team the way we did, the way we fought until the end, the way we pushed. It’s just so nice.
“We knew it was going to be tough and it was just realising that sometimes you can’t play just beautiful football.
“Sometimes you need to adapt and that’s why I am saying that I’m really proud of the team, because when you realise that and you adapt and you do what maybe everyone doesn’t expect you to do, it’s just really, really good for our team.”
Having been frustrated by Newcastle’s game-management in the reverse fixture, a 0-0 draw at the Emirates Stadium in January, Arsenal arrived in the north-east determined to serve up a dose of their own medicine to Eddie Howe’s men.
They were fortunate to emerge unscathed from a testing start during which Jacob Murphy hit a post and the Magpies saw a penalty for handball awarded and then rescinded by referee Chris Kavanagh after Bruno Guimaraes’ goal-bound shot had been blocked by Jakub Kiwior.
However, the Gunners took a 14th-minute lead through the excellent Martin Odegaard before they withstood an onslaught during which goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale and the woodwork kept the home side at bay.
And they cemented the win 19 minutes from time when Gabriel Martinelli’s driven cross flew off Fabian Schar into his own net.
Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta said: “When you have question marks, you have to resolve those question marks, it’s the only way.
“And when you had the emotions that we had last year in that dressing room, you have to make sure you feel them again to realise how difficult, how nasty and how unpleasant they are.
“Then you have to find a way to approach the game in a different way because demands were going to be different from last year. The boys did that extremely well so I’m really proud of them.”
For Newcastle boss Howe, who had seen his Champions League-chasing side win eight of their previous nine games to sit third in the table, the task is to re-group for a testing trip to struggling Leeds on Saturday with Liverpool closing fast.
Howe said: “It can be a really memorable season for us. It’s in our hands. If anyone had said at the start of the season we could be in this position, you would definitely have wanted to be in our position.
“But getting over the line will probably be the hardest thing we have to do. That’s the challenge in front of us.”
Salah's contract 'up to him and the club', says Slot
Arne Slot has asserted Mohamed Salah’s future is “up to him and the club”.
The Liverpool star has yet to make a decision on whether to renew his contract, and as it stands, will be leaving Anfield at the end of the season.
Salah remains a key player for the Reds, and leads the club for Premier League goals (seven) and assists (five) this term.
He scored the winner in the 72nd minute to complete Liverpool’s comeback against Brighton in the Premier League on Saturday, as they moved to the top of the table.
And despite the question marks over Salah's future, Slot is not concerned.
"[His future] is not what I think about. The only thing I think about is he is so important for us. Scores important goals, works hard for the team," the Liverpool boss told TNT Sports.
"I’m hoping he can enjoy that feeling many, many, many more times. Especially if I’m here but also if I’m not here. I’m hoping he can do this many more times.
"He’s been incredible for Liverpool over the past eight years. He’s been incredible for us this season and I hope he can continue doing this for the rest of the season and maybe longer to come, but that’s up to him and the club to find the idea about the future."
Salah could be in for a historic night on Tuesday when Liverpool face Bayer Leverkusen, having scored in each of his last five Champions League appearances at Anfield.
The last player to score in six consecutive home games in the competition for an English club was Ruud van Nistelrooy for Manchester United in April 2003.
Salah sparked renewed talk over his future after posting on Instagram on Sunday, saying that the feeling of scoring at Anfield would remain unforgettable “no matter what happens.”
But Slot was keen to quash any deeper meaning in the post.
"I haven’t spoken to him about that. You interpreted it in a way that maybe other people don’t," he told the press.
"I don’t look at Instagram posts of my players, I only talk to them which you can’t, which is the advantage I have.
"Mo is in a very good place at the moment. As long as he has been at Liverpool, he has been in a very good place, but this season again as well. I am hoping he will make a post after tomorrow and on Saturday again. What he said with that, that is not important.
"For me what is important is how he plays and what he tells me when we have conversations. That is what matters and not how you guys interpret one of his posts."
Silva grateful Fulham's dominance was rewarded with late win
Marco Silva believes Fulham claimed a "deserved win" against Brentford, though admits they should have secured the three points much earlier in their 2-1 victory.
It looked like Vitaly Janelt's 24th-minute strike against the run of play was going to wrap up all three points for Brentford, but Harry Wilson proved the Cottagers' hero off the bench, scoring twice in stoppage time to snatch the three points.
Fulham had dominated from the first whistle and had 26 shots, 12 of which were on target, though they struggled to find a way past their opponents' staunch defence until the 92nd minute.
Wilson became just the sixth player to score an equalising and match-winning goal from the 90th minute onwards in the Premier League, while his second goal was Fulham's latest-ever Premier League winner at 96:46.
Silva was delighted with how his team pushed until the final seconds to ensure they came away with a win.
"It was definitely a deserved win. We started on the front foot and dominated all the game. In the first 20 minutes, we had two clear chances to score," Silva told BBC Sport.
"After they scored, we didn't lose the confidence and the trust in ourselves, we kept pushing them back, and we created enough to not be losing at half-time.
"I told the players this is football, it can happen, but we have to keep pushing, working hard and playing our way.
"It was late, it should've been much before, but that's football."
Brentford, meanwhile, have now dropped a league-high 14 points from winning positions in the Premier League as they suffered a fifth consecutive away defeat in the competition.
In fact, they are the first side in the competition's history to score the first goal in four consecutive away games and lose all four.
They had defended resolutely until their late lapse in concentration, and even had a chance to win it, only for Bernd Leno's impressive save to keep out Fabio Carvalho in the 95th minute.
Thomas Frank, though, admitted he was not yet ready to take the positives from the performance after the disappointment of their late defeat.
"It was tough. It is emotionally very tough right now," Frank told Sky Sports.
"When you are leading in the 92nd minute, and you lose, it is tough. I don't think we hit our highest level. I think on the day Fulham were better.
"There was a lot of good defending and effort, and I thought that would have given us the win. We could have won it with the chance for Fabio Carvalho and then we lost.
"When we look at the game back, and we are more cool-headed, we will probably be very happy with the defensive standard. I thought there were unbelievable blocks, and recovery runs and all that we did well. On the ball, we didn't do enough."
Fulham 2-1 Brentford: Wilson's late brace seals comeback win
Harry Wilson scored twice in stoppage time as Fulham came back to beat Brentford 2-1 in an enthralling West London derby.
Wilson was the hero from Fulham's bench on Monday, as Marco Silva's team – who were on the wrong end of a late comeback against Everton last time out in the Premier League – salvaged a victory from the jaws of defeat.
Fulham will feel it was a win they earned from a match they dominated from the off, with the Bees having taken the lead against the run of play through Vitaly Janelt's stunning 24th-minute strike.
But the Fulham pressure finally told when Wilson rose high to flick in his first in the 92nd minute, and – after Bernd Leno made a superb stop to thwart Brentford at the other end – the former Liverpool midfielder nodded in again to send Craven Cottage into raptures.
Fulham's win takes them up into ninth, while Brentford drop to 12th after suffering a fifth league loss of the season.
Data Debrief: Super-sub Wilson to the rescue
Fulham will feel they deserved to come away from that match with three points, having had 26 shots, 12 of which were on target, in an incredibly dominant display.
They also had 46 touches in the opposition box compared to Brentford's nine, but they could not make those count, at least until Wilson's late intervention as he finally broke through Brentford's stubborn defence.
The Welshman scored with both of his shots on target, having three attempts overall, with his goals coming from a combined 0.19 expected goals.
The Bees looked sure to get a first away win, and first clean sheet, of the Premier League season until their late lapse in concentration, and they have now dropped 14 points from winning positions in the competition this season, more than any other team.
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