Arsene Wenger hailed his side’s mental strength after they managed to grab a draw against Manchester City.

• Arsenal had 8 shots to City’s 14
• Pass success rate was poor from both sides at 76% v 78% 
• Arsenal won 24 tackles to City’s 25
• Arsenal had 3 corners to City’s 8

It’s hard to argue. Sort off.

Arsenal needed to win the game and it was perhaps too much to ask this side, that has struggled so badly recently, to beat Manchester City.

‘First do not lose’ was the order of the day.

“We started with nerves and you could see that had a big impact,” Wenger told Geoff Shreeves after the game.

“It was a strange combination of playing with the nerves. You could see we started very nervous being under pressure and you could see it had a big impact on our fluency and we conceded an early goal as well.

“Strong mental resources and refusing to lose the game and you could see the team was ready for a fight. On a mental front it was a very strong performance. On technical front we can do better but at the end of the day when you come out of a few ddisappointing results when you play a big game the first priority is not to lose.

“Yes [I feared the worse] you could see, I told them what happened, they scored the 2-1 just before the break, that’s one of the worst times psychologically.

“When you’re already struggling mentally and for us the test was mental at half time, not so much tactical, it was mental. Do we feel sorry for ourselves or come back ready for a fight?

“We come out of such a stressful period I think mentally, it [the result] has a positive impact on our team.”