Arsenal held 2-2 by Manchester City as Arsene Wenger’s troubles persist

After the match, Pep Guardiola said City were not yet confident enough “to handle a 1-0 situation”.

“I would say that overall, we started with quite a high level of anxiety and we were punished straight away”, he explained. I feared that we could start with the handbrake on because of the pressure we are under. We were able to get a good result against one of the best teams in the Premier League, so the confidence will slowly come back and we have to continue that on Wednesday (against West Ham United).

Against a backdrop of uncertainty over the future of manager Arsene Wenger and the supporter protests aimed at ousting the Frenchman, the Gunners showed they can still cut it with the best in the division as they fought for a 2-2 draw.

Those cheers were soon silenced two minutes later when Sergio Aguero fired past Ospina after good work from Kevin De Brune and David Silva and City went in at half-time 2-1 up.

Arsenal twice came from behind to draw 2-2 with Manchester City in a tense Premier League encounter this morning and stay seven points behind the fourth-placed visitors. Psychologically it was important not to lose.

‘I don’t know when it became a problem because someone wants to win games’.

“I am here for 20 years and if I have shown one thing it is complete loyalty to this club”, Wenger said.

“It would have been harsh if we’d lost that game on the chances we created”.

“Technically we can do better”. “We don’t have too much time to prepare but we go back to Manchester now and recover and then come back to London“.

The hosts got themselves level with five minutes of the half to play, although it was not the cleanest of goals. If the club is spending more money and they have the players they need, then perhaps Wenger is the flawless man. We were then able to make three, four, five passes in a row.

The Spanish boss did, however, hail the individual performance of his compatriot Jesus Navas after the surprise deployment of the former Sevilla winger in the right-back position to stop Alexis Sanchez.

“Despite all that’s happened on the fans front, I felt our fans were fantastic today”, Wenger told reporters.

He also expressed regret that City had been denied an injury-time penalty for a handball by Nacho Monreal that the Spaniard supposedly admitted to Guardiola after the game.

Middlesbrough, without a win in 12 league games, are four points behind third-bottom Hull, although they have a game in hand on both sides in the battle to avoid dropping into the Championship.