Arsenal: Mikel Arteta reacts to 1-0 loss to Manchester City
Raheem Sterling's first-half goal was enough for Pep Guardiola to get one over his old assistant as Manchester City edged out Mikel Arteta's Arsenal 1-0 on Saturday night. But it wasn't all doom and gloom for the Gunners, according to a club legend.
Arsenal's Premier League top-four hopes suffered a setback over the weekend following their 1-0 defeat by Manchester City.
The visitors were forced into a late change before kick-off as David Luiz replaced Rob Holding, who suffered a hamstring problem in the warm-up, while new signing Thomas Partey was on the bench.
City went in front after a swift counter-attack in the 23rd minute when Sterling swept the ball in after Phil Foden's shot had been parried by Arsenal keeper Bernd Leno.
The Gunners improved in the second half as Nicolas Pepe grew into the match, but were not able to conjure an equaliser as Luiz sent a 25-yard free-kick over the crossbar.
Ian Wright has hails three Arsenal stars (Image: PA)
And despite the defeat, Wright was impressed by the efforts of Bukayo Saka, Dani Ceballos and Gabriel Magalhaes - while the former striker also hailed City's defence.
"(Walker) had to cover that left-hand channel which Aubameyang loves working in and with Cancelo playing like he did who I thought was very impressive today, I thought Kyle Walker covered," Wright said on Match Of The Day.
"He had himself in and around Aubameyang in that channel. He stopped a lot of the balls that go into him, you can see there's a lot of play going through him and he did very well. Even at times he was clipping nice balls.
"A couple of Arsenal players played well today, I thought Saka did well, [as did] Ceballos and Gabriel."
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Arsenal are hoping for a positive season (Image: Express Sport)
Meanwhile Arteta admitted he was frustrated to come away empty-handed against his old boss, but the former City assistant took encouragement from the performance.
"(It's disappointing) not to get anything from the game given the way the game went because I felt we kept growing and growing with more belief that we could get something from it," he said.
"At the same time I'm extremely proud about the way we played individually and collectively, to put in that performance in this stadium is not an easy thing to do."
The manager also suggested the Gunners deserved a penalty, after Kyle Walker went in with a high boot on Gabriel just before the break.
Bukayo Saka has impressed for the Gunners (Image: PA)