Arsenal won through two own goals, with the second - on 94 minutes - coming after Tolu Arokodare had struck Wolves' equaliser in the 90th minute.
Arteta said afterwards, "A big three points, especially the way things turned out at the end. In the first half we generated a lot of situations into very dangerous areas without creating big chances from that, so we had to really improve the efficiency in the last delivery, the last pass, because the movement and the options were in the box there time after time, but we didn't take them. We missed a massive clear chance with Gabi two yards away, which should have been a goal.
“In the second half we adjusted a few things, we were more efficient, we generated more chances and scored a goal. But then we had a period of two minutes where we had to sit deep because they committed a lot of players, we could not press them in that moment, and our defensive habits were terrible.
"And when that happens, even though we didn't concede a single shot throughout the game, they just needed that action to score a goal and put the game into a really difficult position.
“So, thank God at the end we reacted, (Bukayo) put a great ball in the box, Gabby touched it, I think it was an own goal, if not Mikel is there as well and Leo is there to put it in the back of the net and thank God we won the game.
“I want to see the character before, when we score the goal and we have to prevent them scoring, that's why we had to show the character at the end.”