Mikel Arteta was impressed by Arsenal’s maturity as Gabriel Magalhaes headed home a 1-0 North London derby winner at Sp*rs.

The Gunners started the match without key personnel – notably Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard – but secured victory thanks to a disciplined defence that kept the home side at bay for much of the game.

Although the victory was far from pretty – Arsenal were unusually sloppy in possession throughout the match – there was no doubting the commitment of the players, who, one by one, put the pressure on.

“The resilience we showed,” Arteta responded then Sky Sport requested what impressed him most.

“We knew it was going to be a really tough game, it always is here, they are a really great team, they create an incredible atmosphere. We had some great moments, especially in the first half, open spaces that we should have done a lot more with than we actually did. We know we are a big threat in set pieces and we believed we could help them, and we did.

“We weren’t the best with the ball today, we did a lot of simple things wrong, which means we don’t have continuity. It’s true that the sequence of passes you can make against them is very limited before you attack them, because they jump and put pressure on every ball and make it very difficult. But the way we defended was top.

He added: “It was incredible, it’s a real compliment to the team because every player in every area of ​​the pitch is ready to do what many people call ugly things and they still enjoy that part of the game. When you do that, you start to be a very complete team that can win in any context. The context today was at times very favourable for us and at times very difficult and we managed to do that.”

“I’m happy, the team has to overcome many obstacles during the season. The last few days have been difficult, we’ve lost many important players, but I have every confidence in the players who were in it and those who were waiting for their chance. They have trained and behaved in the right way, so if they have to compete, this is the result.”

Asked if patience and discipline were key, he continued: “Yes, it’s because we want to play a different game, especially without the ball, in many areas of the pitch, but they have put in place a structure that is extremely difficult to match and if you do that, especially with certain players that we had in midfield today, we would be very vulnerable. We decided not to do that and the boys did exceptionally well.”

As for his reaction to Gabriel’s header that ended up in the net, which saw him give a big hug to Nicolas Jover, the set-piece coach, he said: “It was luck, that’s why we are here to score goals and win football games.

“Heading the ball, that’s what we’re working on. The right delivery and the right header, that’s what we’ve done.”