Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was satisfied with his side’s performance after their 0-0 draw with Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday during the Premier League.
According to Opta, Arsenal this season are only the fourth team to keep a clean sheet against a side managed by Pep Guardiola in two league matches in the same season, after Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2014-15, Manchester United in 2020-21, and Crystal Palace in 2021-22.
“Huge – it’s extremely difficult to do that [clean sheets against City] but that tells you the commitment of every player, the discipline that they showed and how they compete. One thing is to play a football match and the other is to compete [in] it. Against this team, we did that today really, really well,” Arteta was quoted as saying by arsenal.com.
Arteta also lauded his side’s defensive display during the match against the defending Premier League champions.
“It was a thrilling game, a really tough match, a very demanding opponent but I think we competed really well. Defensively, I think we were outstanding. We had to go and put them under pressure higher up the pitch – I think we were really good and created a lot of difficulties,” the Arsenal boss added.
“When they are that good that they get you in this low block, it’s very difficult to get out of that, they drop a lot of players and I think we prevented the spaces really well and that’s the difficulty. It’s the first time they haven’t scored at home in three years, so that’s the outstanding team that they are. And then the downside is that we had some big situations to score, we didn’t make the most out of them and the next step is with the ball to have much more composure, especially in the first phase to attack better.”
The draw meant that Liverpool, who will lock horns with bottom side Sheffield United on Thursday, are on top of the table with 67 points, two points ahead of Arsenal and three ahead of defending champions Manchester City.
The Reds came from a goal down to overpower Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 and top the Premier League table on Sunday.
