Mikel Arteta won’t go down without a fight despite his Arsenal squad being torn apart by the rampant Manchester City.
Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones and Erling Haaland scored as Josep Guardiola’s team beat the Gunners 4-1 on Wednesday.
City are now just two points behind the Premier League leaders with two games in hand.
According to Opta, with City’s win, they now have a 92% chance of winning the league, compared to 8% for the Gunners.
However, Arteta does not lose hope.
“This is a very difficult night, obviously after we lost,” he told BT Sport.
“But we have to stand up and look at the big picture and how we compete with this team. To be honest, it’s incredible and we want to compete, we’re not going to give up.
“There are five games ahead, anything can happen, and I’ve seen a lot in 20 years. You have to believe it, we have to look in the mirror and admit that we lost to an exceptional team.”
92.1% – After a 4-1 win over Arsenal today, our forecaster gives Manchester City a 92.1% chance of winning the Premier League this season. Decisive? pic.twitter.com/UIJcTe1vgz
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 26, 2023
The city was great in every way.
De Bruyne gave them the lead after only seven minutes and then put the Stones on the tee, adding a second to the break.
De Bruyne’s second half ended the affair early in the second half when Rob Holding landed a consolation kick before Haaland came into play, surpassing Mohamed Salah’s record of 32 goals in a 38-game Premier League season.
“We were beaten by the best team, that’s for sure,” Arteta said.
“They were exceptional and in this case it’s hard to reach that level and we weren’t even close to our level, especially in the first half – when you open that gap you get punished.”
“When you have him in one corner and they kick him for 60 yards, they win that fight, they run right through you – you have to start competing, win your fights and all the basic stuff. We didn’t do them in the first half.
“What we were like in the first 20, 30 minutes, they were over us, we couldn’t handle the situation. They were very direct, we knew they had the ability to do it because they could stretch the pitch. We had to compete, but we immediately lost.”