Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta believes his side need ‘perfection from everyone for 96 minutes’ to beat Premier League title rivals Manchester City.
The Gunners welcome Pep Guardiola’s City side to the Emirates on Wednesday evening in the first crunch match of the Premier League season between the two title protagonists. Mikel Arteta’s side faced the Citizens a couple of weeks previously in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup, with City narrowly coming away as victors.
Ahead of the first league encounter of the season between the top two, Arteta is adamant his young side have learnt from their FA Cup tie and is confident the Gunners are heading in the right direction.
“I think we took a lot of positives from the (FA Cup) game,” said Arteta. “We still ended up losing for one reason or the other, but hopefully we’ve gone a step further and will show them tomorrow.
“The small details at the end dictate the big matches. We experienced that at the Etihad in the FA Cup and tomorrow we will demand perfection from everyone for 96 minutes to beat them.”
It was a hugely frustrating game over the weekend for Arsenal against an inform Brentford side, where an error during the VAR check led to the Bees’ equaliser not being ruled out when replays showed Christian Norgaard was in an offside position.
Despite the setback, and the possibility of the Gunners being overhauled at the top of the table with a defeat against City, Arteta is positive his team can channel any possible anger in the right way in what the Spaniard believes is the perfect match to bounce back from recent disappointment.
“I think it’s changed to more positive energy. It’s (The anger) gone, we’re not going to get anything back except some sympathy. It’s up to us.
“It is the perfect match. They can do it with or without Haaland, they can do anything, and we will try to plan for it.
