Mikel Arteta defended his team selection in Arsenal‘s 1-1 draw against Manchester City and said his side “completely dominated” the game despite a failure to claim all three points after registering record-breaking possession against a Pep Guardiola team.
Arsenal now sit five points behind leaders Liverpool after Gabriel Martinelli‘s stoppage time equaliser snatched a draw at the Emirates following Erling Haaland‘s ninth minute opener for City.
Arteta’s team were so dominant that they registered 67.2% of possession over the 90 minutes — the highest ever recorded against a side managed by Guardiola.
But after starting with Eberechi Eze, Bukayo Saka and Martinelli on the bench, Gunners’ boss Arteta rejected suggestions that his starting lineup lacked ambition.
“I leave that to you [to decide],” Arteta told reporters. “But there was a lot of attacking players in that team.
“It’s easy to say that [we lacked ambition], but we started the game very well and completely dominated. “City scored a goal and then did nothing. Everybody tries to do best to get a result, that’s fine.
“But we controlled the game and dominated and the second-half was the same.
“I’m extremely proud of my players and team, but very disappointed with the result. The pride I feel is that we dominated the game.
“One City chance is a corner, another is a counter-attack and the other is a giveaway. That’s it. To keep City to just that, chapeau to the boys.”
Striker Viktor Gyökeres, Arsenal’s £63.5m ($85.7m) summer signing from Sporting CP, failed to register a shot against City, but Arteta said that was down to his team not being able to find the key pass to the Sweden international.
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“There was a lot of very good balls in the box and he [Gyökeres] was very close to them,” Arteta said. “Against City, it is very difficult to get clear chances.
“There were a lot of situations, the chances were there, but the final pass was missing.”
Despite Arsenal falling five points behind champions Liverpool — Arsenal have already lost 1-0 at Anfield this season — Arteta is confident that his players will be “fine” in the title race.
“We cannot control that. They [Liverpool] win every match,” Arteta said. “It’s going to be very difficult but if we play at this level, like we did against Manchester City, we will be fine.”
