Kieran Gibbs believes Arsenal are fully worthy of their FA Cup Final place, following Saturday’s victory over Wigan Athletic.
The Gunners had to rely on a late equaliser from Per Mertesacker to take the Semi-Final to extra-time, after falling behind to a Jordi Gomez penalty in the second half at Wembley.
Wigan Athletic 1-1 Arsenal (2-4 on pens)
The FA Cup with Budweiser
Semi-Final
5.07pm, Saturday 12 April
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Winners receive £900,000
Losing club receive £450,000
And Gibbs says he felt Arsenal were better of the teams over the course of the 120 minutes and warranted the penalty shoot-out victory against their Championship opponents.
"The team showed fantastic character today," he told TheFA.com at Wembley.
"After going 1-0 down, to stay in the game and respond the way we did is a credit to the boys in the team.
"And now we want to use that for the rest of the season.
"We've got a job to do in the last five games of the season so we want to take care of that first and then we can enjoy The Final after."
Gibbs celebrates the winning penalty with Santi Cazorla at Wembley
Gibbs admits it became frustrating for the Gunners at times, with Uwe Rosler’s Latics putting in a solid display to keep them at bay.
But once Arsenal found their form and an equaliser through Mertesacker’s header, they were always in pursuit of a winner.
"For the half hour after that [Wigan's goal], it was just a case of giving it our all and the boys certainly did that," added the England defender.
"Everyone just found a different gear and I felt we did enough to win the game over the course of the 120 minutes and fair play to the boys for keeping their nerve during the penalties."
Watch the full interview with Gibbs in the media player above.
