Arsenal players were inspired by a Freddie Ljungberg half-time team talk in their 3-1 comeback win over West Ham on Monday.
The Gunners had been trailing at the break thanks to Angelo Ogbonna’s 38th-minute header.
But three goals in nine second-half minutes from Gabriel Martinelli, club-record signing Nicolas Pepe and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang secured a first win in 10 games for Arsenal.
It was third time lucky for Ljungberg, who had overseen a draw with Norwich and a loss to Brighton in his first two games in temporary charge.
When asked what he said to his players at half-time at the London Stadium, Ljungberg told talkSPORT: “For me, it was that they needed to keep their belief. It’s up to the players on that pitch.
“The main thing we talked about was to speed up the game. The passes were too slow, the movement was too slow.
“Believe in yourselves, speed things up and slice them up a bit more when you go in-behind and not be so nervous.
“Your confidence is low when you don’t win, things go a bit slower. They did it, I didn’t – the players did tremendously well in the second half, I’m so proud.”
Ljungberg handed a first Premier League start to 18-year-old striker Martinelli – at the expense of £46.5million signing Alexandre Lacazette – and recall for Pepe.
And both men repaid the Swede’s faith with goals in east London.
Ljungberg added: “The ones who didn’t play are tremendous football players and tremendous professionals.
“That’s tough, as well, for a coach or a manager, you have to make strong and tough decisions, but when you get players who took their chance like they did today… the energy of Martinelli, he’s like a Duracell battery, he never stopped moving and running!
“It’s nice, but the other guys that didn’t play, they really backed up the players, there were no bad feelings or anything like that.
“That makes me proud, they’re very professional.”
