Arsenal Dominated City: Arteta Praises His Team After Draw

Arteta Defends Team Selection Despite Draw Against Manchester City

Mikel Arteta defended his starting lineup in Arsenal’s 1-1 draw against Manchester City, stating that his team “completely dominated” the match, despite not securing all three points. Arsenal are now five points behind leaders Liverpool after a stoppage-time goal from Gabriel Martinelli rescued a draw at the Emirates following Erling Haaland’s opener for City. Arteta’s team was so dominant that it recorded 67.2% possession during the 90 minutes, the highest percentage ever recorded against a team managed by Pep Guardiola. After benching Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze and Martinelli, the Gunners’ manager rejected suggestions that his starting eleven lacked ambition.

I’ll leave it to you [to decide]. But there were a lot of attacking players in that team.

Mikel Arteta

“It’s easy to say that, but we started the match very well and completely dominated. City scored a goal and then did nothing. Everyone tries to do their best to get a result, that’s fine.” “But we controlled the match and dominated, and the second half was the same.” “I am very proud of my players and the team, but very disappointed with the result. The pride I feel is that we dominated the match.” “One City opportunity is a corner, another is a counterattack, and the other is a handover. That’s all. Keeping City just to that, chapeau to the guys.”

The striker Viktor Gyökeres failed to register a shot against City, but Arteta said that was because his team couldn’t find the key pass for the Swedish international. “There were many very good balls in the area and he [Gyökeres] was very close to them,” Arteta said. “Against City, it’s very difficult to get clear chances.” “There were many situations, the opportunities were there, but the final pass was missing.” Although Arsenal finished five points behind Liverpool, Arteta is confident that his players will be “fine” in the title race. “We can’t control that. They [Liverpool] win every game,” Arteta said. “It’s going to be very difficult, but if we play at this level, like we did against Manchester City, we’ll be fine.”