Mikel Arteta explains why Man City defeat has given him 'more belief' in Arsenal's title hunt
By Tom Gott
Mikel Arteta has admitted he feels more confident in Arsenal's chances of winning the Premier League title even after Wednesday's 3-1 defeat to reigning champions Manchester City.
City have climbed above the Gunners into first place, having played one game more, but were not always comfortable during the game and finished with a stunningly low 36% possession in the game - almost unheard of for a Pep Guardiola side.
With Arsenal also guilty of sloppy errors for City's goals, Arteta was confident in his side's ability to go toe-to-toe with England's best team of the past five years.
“I have more belief after seeing a side that can go head to head," he told Amazon Prime. "I have more belief in my players.
“The atmosphere and the performance was really good if you take away that we gave away three goals. They (City) are the best team in the world.
“To beat them you have to be over your level. I think we had them in big moments but again the games are defined in individual moments, especially in the box and they were better than us.
“The way we gave the goals away is not possible.
“At the end it is disappointment because we lost it. I say we because we lost it. It was an incredible battle between two teams. We gave them the goals and we have three chances that we didn’t put away.”
Arsenal and City are now tied on points but Arteta's side still have the upper hand having played one game fewer, with the two sides set to square up on fixtures when Arsenal face Everton on March 1.