Mikel Arteta has returned to critics following Arsenal’s Premier League draw against Manchester City – “Nothing happened in 17 years of Pep.”

After the game, Arteta fired for being overly cautious after starting midfield 3 with Martin Zubimendi, Declan Rice and Mikel Merino, who are likely to be included in place of the injured Martin Odegard.

The Spaniard also left a new signature Ebelech Eze on the bench, choosing Leandro Trossard to the left of striker Victor Gyoker, and Nuni Maduke on the right.

“I’d be very surprised,” Arteta said when asked if he had read the backlash.

“With my knowledge, know-how and the way I analyze football games, it was impossible to predict such an advantage from Arsenal for 96 minutes. That didn’t happen in 17 years of PEP as a manager.

“How can you become dominant against such a team with handbrakes? Domination and handbrake – those are two different words. But I accept everything.

“I was surprised by that. I was surprised when I looked at it all and looked back at it with all the statistics.

“I respect everyone’s opinions. If I can see and learn things I’ve never seen before, I’m happy to do so. That’s never the problem.”

“If you look at our team’s actions, I don’t think a player will make it,” Arteta said of his decision not to start Eze.

“If one player is playing in that position, and when defining that, we understand collective sports in a very different way.

“We played EBS (eze) on the right. Can he play 90 minutes? That’s the question I said for myself.

“It’s easy to say he might have played from the start, but that’s not because he’s already played two games from the start and has never played as the right side attacking the midfielder on the right.