Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was proud of his team after a 0-0 draw against Manchester City.

The Gunners went to the Etihad Stadium and held onto second spot in the league, but did drop two points to Liverpool in the title race.

However, Arteta was pleased that his team showed they were City's equal, even away from home.

He told reporters: “It was a really thrilling game. A really tough match. Very demanding opponent. I think we competed really well. Defensively we were outstanding. We had to go and put them under pressure high up the pitch. I think we were really good and created a lot of difficulties. When they attack they get you in this low block and it's really hard to get out of that. They drop a lot of players and I think we prevented that really well.

“It's three years since they haven't scored at home so that tells you the outstanding team that they are. The downside is that we had some situations to score. We didn't make the most out of it. I think the next step is to have the composure with the ball in the first phase to attack better."

He then added on whether the performance showed their progress: “Yeah I think the context and the way we arrived here 11 months ago was different, but the difficulty remains the same.

“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."