Is that the biggest result of your coaching career so far?
TE: I’m young, it’s not that I’ve been doing this for a long, long time, so definitely the biggest game so far. It was a big night for us as a football club.
For the supporters, the stadium has been buzzing from the first minute, and the reality is championship football from tomorrow onwards.
How did you manage to beat the Premier League leaders?
TE: I think the game always lives off moments. We had some very good ones at the start of the game, even to open up the scoreline a little bit earlier.
I think we deserved them to go up, and then you know the second half unfolds, and you have some substitutions that you need to deal with.
They can change the game in both directions. We were prepared to be able to react to that, and the boys pushed through the 90 minutes very well.
How key was the early goal to give your side the belief?
TE: I think the belief was always there. We didn’t need that goal to believe that we could win the game.
We knew that there were some moments where we needed to be brave enough to play football today and to be good in possession.
You can’t just defend over 90 minutes against the quality that they have, and I think we found a good mix of that over the whole game.
Have you thought about now taking your team to Wembley?
TE: Well, I think the club has been craving for a moment like this for a long time. I think that we’ve suffered over a longer spell.
It’s just so important that we get that atmosphere back to St Mary’s how it should be. I think today was outstanding.
Not just for the generation from 1976, but also for the younger generation to be able to identify themselves with the club and with what we do.
I think nights like this help a lot.
Can you sum up your own emotions and those of the players now?
TE: Yeah. We said this at the beginning of the week, that we have put ourselves in a position to play for something in April and May.
Then it’s full preparation to go into a game all out, and then you need to close that chapter quite quickly, because that’s just the reality.
From tomorrow onwards, it’s Championship football. They can enjoy it tonight. Whoever needs to do regeneration comes in to recover tomorrow.
But the reality is that we have a big game coming up on Tuesday. That’s the balance, and the test of maturity that we have from tomorrow onwards.
Is there a different feeling around these FA Cup games this season?
TE: Well, I think the support has been amazing for both of those games. You felt that Fulham, with 5,000 supporters, was quite special on the day.
I think today you felt that the stadium had a different atmosphere to it right from the very start. The feeling is clear that this year is something special.
We make sure that we continue that journey as long as possible, but again, the reality from tomorrow onwards is Championship football.
Is your adaptability and flexibility a bit of a secret weapon?
TE: I think the only thing you can do is you can try to give some images to the players of what might potentially come up.
The reality is that they will need to find that way on the pitch, and I think they’ve done that brilliantly today.
Will it be difficult to shift focus so soon to Wrexham on Tuesday?
TE: I don’t think so. It’s our job to prepare that game. I think we’ve always done that in a proper way. We’ve had the same questions after Fulham.
I’m very sure that we’re ready to go on Tuesday.
Did you feel you had to be on the attack to beat Arsenal?
TE: Yeah, the players have done that very well today. It’s the only team in the Premier League that doesn’t give you any balls when you press in their half.
If you’re that moment too late, they don’t really have any turnovers in their own half because they do play that very well.
We had some moments of goal kicks that we needed to use today, so as not to let them progress easily up the pitch.
But we know they bring the game into your half at one point, and then you just need to make sure that you’re willing to suffer and stay switched on.
They do have a couple of rotations, in the FA Cup even more with the players that they have on the pitch. It depends a little bit on who the striker is.
We know that it needs a lot of communication from behind because they have some freedom to move, and then you just need to be switched on.
Even if you don’t touch the ball for half a minute or a minute, you have to stay switched on, and I think the boys have done that very well.
How did you use the pressure on Arsenal to pull off an upset?
TE: I think that’s a public opinion, but the expectation from us inside was that we would go into the game to win it.
I think that we, at this moment of the season, need to embrace the pressure, and if you do then you also have that little bit of weight on you.
That should be something that makes us thrive and excel. I think it’s important that we are quite clear on this if you want to be a winning team.
You can never put away the pressure because the pressure is clearly on us. Then it’s about the belief, and I think the crowd helped us today.
How have you managed to transform the club’s form so quickly?
TE: Obviously, you always want things to happen very quickly. If you come off a season like we did last year, you want to turn the page very quickly.
But that sometimes takes a little bit more time. It definitely took a little bit more time for us at the beginning of the season.
The group has grown together more and more, especially over the last weeks and months. Then you need resilience in moments of a game.
Especially today. We conceded in the second half and had invested so much into the game. It’s not so easy to stay level and make sure you keep pushing.
I think that’s a credit to the boys.
How did you get your players to believe they could actually win?
TE: I think there is not a single occasion. It’s just the way you live football. It’s the way you live and prepare training sessions, the way you prepare games.
I think that just becomes infectious. It was clear that we needed to become a winning team, and the way of winning looks very different game to game.
That comes along with a lot of humility, because it’s not nice to run after the ball for some moments, but you need to be humble enough to do that.
Not just against bigger teams, but also against teams that are below you on the table. A good mix of work ethic plus humility has helped us a lot.
Will winning counteract the impact of such a busy schedule?
TE: Yeah, it should. I think the team has enough confidence now to go into that next block of games again. We keep saying the same thing.
We keep repeating that we need to keep our heads down, we need to stay humble, and we need to focus on the job. We need to keep working.
We will start that tomorrow morning.
Will you at least celebrate that result a little bit tonight?
TE: Let’s see. I’ll go back in and see how the staff looks. We’ll find a glass of red wine tonight, and then again we’ll move on to Wrexham tomorrow.
Did you notice a vulnerability in Arsenal in your analysis?
TE: Vulnerability, I don’t know, but there are definitely some moments where you can take the game in your hands. You might need to be more active.
Especially with your sixes [midfielders]. It is one of the toughest jobs because you defend, and I think you get your heartbeat up quite a bit.
Then to stay active in possession and not see that as a moment to drop. I think it’s a big challenge, and I think we’ve done that very well today.