The manager had a lot to talk about in the Etihad Stadium press conference after the game.
Questions on the performance, the team’s defensive record, the level of play in the Premier League standings, and other topics were posed to Mikel Arteta.
This is the entire transcript.
Regarding his thoughts on the event, he said, “I think we competed really well.” It was an exciting battle against a really challenging opponent.
Defensively, I think we were outstanding. We had to go and put them under pressure higher up the pitch – I think we were really good and created a lot of difficulties. When they are that good that they get you in this low block, it’s very difficult to get out of that, they drop a lot of players and I think we prevented the spaces really well and that’s the difficulty. It’s the first time they haven’t scored at home in three years, so that’s the outstanding team that they are. And then the downside is that we had some big situations to score, we didn’t make the most out of them and the next step is with the ball to have much more composure, especially in the first phase to attack better.
On taking pride from two clean sheets against Manchester City…
Huge – it’s extremely difficult to do that but that tells you the commitment of every player, the discipline that they showed and how they compete. One thing is to play a football match and the other is to compete [in] it. Against this team, we did that today really, really well.
On whether it was a good result in terms of the title race…
I don’t know. You want to win the game, we prepared to win it. If you can’t win it, make sure we draw it, and we did that. Eleven months ago we were here and the story was very different, and you have to continue to make steps as a team and try to improve and today we have done that. We still have much more to come.
On if today’s result shows how much we’ve improved since our last visit…
I think the context and the way we arrived here was different as well, but the difficulty remains the same. I continue to say they are the best team in the world in my opinion by far, the best manager in the world by far and we have to catch up and try to be better than them, and that’s the challenge ahead of us.
On whether Bukayo Saka was ok when he came off…
Well, as you know he has been out for a few weeks now with a little problem and he was feeling that fatigue. Right now, he hasn’t trained. He trained one day before the match – he had a big contribution, but 90 minutes were too much for him today.
On how we had to adapt to having an inferior possession in the game…
Clarity, before the game: are you ready to follow 30 passes? And after following the ball 30 passes, lose the ball and follow another 30 passes? Yes, then you can play Manchester City. It’s very important – if you are not ready to do that, you cannot play against them.
On what today’s result can do for us in terms of the run-in…
Obviously, it generates belief, it continues the momentum, and the good position that we are in. And the fact that the boys are there, and they want more, individually they are demanding themselves, they could have done this better, and we haven’t done this well enough like we trained. That tells you how much they want, and we will try our best to continue to do what we are doing.
On whether we were expecting Manchester City’s gameplan today…
You have options, it’s in your hands. When they start to drop players, they can drop a winger to a goalkeeper and attacking midfielder, they can bring a full-back inside, a centre-back inside, you want to follow those seven or eight players inside and leave Haaland one-against-one, that’s your choice. If you win it, great! If you don’t, you know what’s happening and you’re going to have to attack open spaces, so the line is really thin with them.
On what this result says about our development since last season…
That we are improving, and we are competing better, and we are understanding how you have to play these games, but there are more steps to make to win championships and to be there, you have to come here and win. And today we were able to draw, and we have to still improve a lot to be able to do that.