Man City draw shows Arsenal are improving says Mikel Arteta

ARSENAL manager Mikel Arteta believes his side took a step towards a possible first Premier League title in 20 years in yesterday’s goalless draw at the Etihad.

The result lifted Arteta’s team to within two points of leaders Liverpool, with nine games remaining, and followed on from a 1-0 win over his mentor Pep Guardiola in the corresponding fixture in October.

It was a world removed from an embarrassing 4-1 defeat at the same ground a little under a year ago, which handed the title to City, and the performance provided a statement from his team, according to Arteta.

“It says that we are improving, we are competing better and understand how you have to play these games,” said Arteta.

“It generates belief and momentum and the good position we are in, the fact the boys are there and want more individually, demand more of themselves and what they could have done better.

“That tells you how much they want it and we will try our best to continue. There are other steps to win championships and be there. If you want to win championships you have to come here and win and we have to improve a lot to be able to do that.”

In truth, Arsenal did not look likely to win a disappointing contest although the Gunners manager could, rightly, take pride from his team’s defensive efforts as they stopped City from scoring in a home game for the first time since October 2021.

“It’s the first time they haven’t scored in (nearly) three years,” he said.

“That’s the type of team they are but the downside is we had some big situations to score and didn’t make the most of them.

“We want to win the game, we prepared to win it, but if you can’t win it, make sure you draw and we did that. Compared to 11 months ago here, the story is very different.”

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