Mikel Arteta knows Arsenal still face big challenge as he makes Man City admission

Mikel Arteta believes his Arsenal side proved they are title challengers in Sunday's Premier League draw with Manchester City.

The scoreless Etihad encounter leaves City third in the table, a point behind the Gunners and three adrift of leaders Liverpool. And Arteta was pleased with his side's showing given they collapsed 4-1 at the same ground almost a year ago, effectively ending their title challenge.

There was no repeat as Arsenal’s eight-game losing streak at the Etihad came to an end, and this felt like a more important result for the Gunners. City and Arsenal both fought hard but produced a match of few chances, with Guardiola’s men failing to score at home for the first time in 58 matches across all competitions.

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“I think the context and the way we arrived here 11 months ago was different, but the difficulty remains the same,” Arsenal boss Arteta said.

“They are the best team in the world, in my opinion, by far. They have the best manager in the world by far. To catch up and try to better than them is the challenge ahead of us…

“I don’t know (if the draw is good for the title race). You want to win the game. You prepare to win it. If you cannot win it, make sure you draw it. We did that.

“Eleven months ago we were here and the story was very different. You have to make steps as a team and today we’ve done that. We still have many more to come…

“(It says) that we are improving and competing better and understand how you have to play these games but there is another step to make to win the championship. You have to come here and win.”