Mikel Arteta makes admission about Arsenal's win over Leicester - 'It was worrying'

Mikel Arteta admits he was left 'worrying' as Arsenal nearly let victory slip through their fingers against Leicester on Saturday.

The Gunners secured a thrilling 4-2 victory against the Premier League strugglers but the scoreline did not tell the full story. Arsenal initially looked to be on their way to a comfortable success after strikes from Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard in a dominant first-half.

Arsenal had plenty of chances to add to their lead but somehow found themselves pegged back after the break. A brace from Leicester defender James Justin hauled the visitors level. But Wilfred Ndidi put through his net in stoppage time before Kai Havertz wrapped up three points for Arteta's side.

It sees the North London join Manchester City - who dropped points against Newcastle earlier in the day - on 14 points at the top of the Premier League.

Arteta was left concerned at how his side let their lead slip, but was full of praise for his players after wrestling back control of the game. Speaking after the full-time whistle, the Arsenal boss said: "I am happier with how we dealt with it - emotionally in control.

"It was worrying. In theory, we should have never got to this point - but this is football. This is the beauty of football, in relation to other sports.

"It got very emotional. More than we wanted certainly. After 2-0 the result should have been bigger. This is the Premier League. They scored two goals. But I’m really pleased with the way we responded."

Arteta's side created an array of glorious chances throughout the game. They had 36 shots, 16 on target but found Leicester goalkeeper Mads Hermansen a formidable opponent.

And the Arsenal boss has admitted that the missed chances would come back and bite title chasers. He added: "It was emotionally difficult to accept given the amount of goals we should have scored."

But Arteta was still complimentary of his team's performance. Speaking to Match of the Day, he said: "I'm very happy, first of all with the performance. I think we were unbelievable today. We deserved to win with many more goals.

"Starting the second half the way we did, conceding the first goal makes things harder and then with the equaliser the team showed unbelievable character to keep pushing, creating chance after chance. We suffered more than we should have but this is football. Really happy with the team."