Mikel Arteta feels that we have to get over our 4-1 loss at Manchester City swiftly if we’re to get back to winning ways again as soon as possible.
We saw our 10-game unbeaten run in the Premier League come to an end as Pep Guardiola’s team cut the gap at the top to two points, and on a difficult night for us Mikel gave credit to the quality of our opponents, and urged his players to bounce back quickly.
Analysing the game, he said: “We have to accept that the better team won. They were much better than us, they were more efficient, especially in the first half. They competed for every ball, with a different intensity, purpose and determination.
“We lost too many of those duels and we ended up defending when we were in really good positions, defending in open places against those players which is the last thing that you want to do.
“We have to move on. We will be very silly if this affects us in the next few weeks, so this is a difficult one we have to accept the reality and then we have to move on. We have to try to help the players and paint the reality of where we are. Today they played against a team that were the best at that level. It’s who can keep at that level, that is the question.”
Ahead of the game Mikel had little indication that his players were going to be on the wrong end of the scoreline they received, but felt that Kevin de Bruyne’s early strike changed our gameplan completely.
“[Before the game] I saw the team really at it, and really confident that they were going to do something, he said. “But the way we started, we were on the back foot straight away and after that, we struggled to cope. We did much better in the second half in many periods but at that point, it’s too late.
“There were certain moments when we had the possibility [to impose ourselves], but we kept giving the ball away very easily and couldn’t build any momentum. That’s the thing, that wasn’t us and we have to look in the mirror and move on.”
Watch the full interview with Mikel by pressing play above
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