Heung-min Son had Spurs ahead before Arsenal fought back through a Dominic Solanke own goal and Leandro Trossard's winner.
Arteta said afterwards: "The boys were outstanding today. Less than 72 hours ago we played 120 minutes in another competition that we went out of - that is not easy psychologically. So the way we performed and played today was exceptional.
"We made it harder for ourselves. I think we deserved to score at least one or two more but we had to suffer. We showed that have the capacity to do that too. The attitude, the purpose and intensity that the players played with was really good.
"We were incredibly good in the last game against United and we ended up losing somehow. It is all about the next game. It is great that we won today. We can now enjoy that for a few hours then Villa.
"My confidence comes from seeing the players and how they perform every day. If my confidence comes and goes with each result then we should not be doing this."
The manager also said: "(Myles Lewis-Skelly) was phenomenal today. He is a real personality. He has so much trust in himself. He has that attitude about him. He had to play against (Brennan) Johnson and (Dejan) Kulusevski here, and manage the occasion, it is not easy. He was top."