Arsenal defender Kieran Tierney admitted it had been the ‘toughest year’ of his life after netting in the final-day win over Watford.

Left-back Tierney had struggled with injury since joining from Celtic but was one of the team’s more consistent performers since the Premier League restarted in mid-June, following the coronavirus pandemic.

And he scored the second goal in a 3-2 victory at Emirates Stadium on Sunday as the Gunners finished the delayed 2019-20 campaign in eighth place.

“It has been the toughest year of my life,” Tierney told arsenal.com.

“I’ve had the injury and a lot of new challenges but you need new challenges, you need to be uncomfortable.

“You need to challenge yourself to improve. I worked hard every day and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy coming to this massive club full of great players.

“I knew it was going to be tough coming in and trying to get my place in the team.

“I’m just grateful for the opportunity I get to go on the pitch and give my all. I try to repay the manager’s faith by working hard and trying to put in good performances. It’s all about the hard work.”

After Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netted an early penalty, Tierney doubled the Arsenal advantage against relegation-threatened Watford with a deflected effort.

Aubameyang made it 3-0 on 33 minutes, before Watford hit back either side of the break in a failed attempt to avoid the drop.

Tierney added: “I didn’t know what to do so I just turned around. I think it was shock!

“I’ll take it. It was a good ball from Auba as well, so it was a good day for me personally.”