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Football London
Football London
Sport
Tashan Deniran-Alleyne

Arsenal fans can't believe what Pep Guardiola said about Mikel Arteta after Man City's 5-0 win

Pep Guardiola has jumped to the defence of Mikel Arteta following Manchester City's 5-0 thrashing of Arsenal.

But not all Gunners supporters are happy with the Spaniard.

Arsenal went into the game at the Etihad Stadium on the back of a 6-0 win against West Brom in the Carabao Cup three days earlier, but were looking for their first points and goals of the new Premier League season.

Despite a relatively decent start to the game on Saturday afternoon, they found themselves 2-0 down after 12 minutes, reduced to 10-men in the 35th minute, conceded another goal before half-time before going on to suffer a heavy defeat.

The 5-0 - which has left the north London outfit bottom of the Premier League table by virtue of scoring one fewer goal than Norwich City - has heaped pressure on Arteta, but Guardiola insists his former assistant is the right person for the job at the Emirates.

"Of course I have [sympathy]," the Spaniard told reporters after the game. "The back-five today who played, okay they are good players, but they are not the players they need with Tierney, Ben White and Gabriel and many, many players that he has.

"Thomas Partey is not there.

"In football, people want result, result, result. Sometimes, you have the squad – look at us, except for Phil and Kevin, all the other people are ready.

"It is easy for me. The players make our job good. The moment he has the full squad, everything is going well.

"I know him perfectly and know the quality he has as a person and as a manager."

Whilst those words are a great show of support for Arteta, some Arsenal fans think Guardiola has an ulterior motive for wanting his compatriot to avoid the sack.

Take a look at what's been said on Twitter...

@hillarydehilmac said: "Pep defending Arteta and his team is so ridiculous, he says that Arsenal was pressing and making it hard for City to win! Really ?? Guy wants to always score 5 whenever he meets us."

@highburyballboy said: "If he thinks Arteta is so good, he should take him back at City."

@lovecuttingz said: "You dont have friends in a competition, Pep very smart . Arteta falling is just 6 points to city .

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