Pablo Zabaleta staying at Man City after Pep Guardiola talks

Theo Walcott (73′) and Chuba Akpom (86′) were all on target for the Gunners, although the increasingly impressive young striker Kelechi Iheanacho had the final say for the Citizens with his 88th minute consolation goal.

“I think a year ago was a surprise to me because of Pellegrini, everybody knew that he would leave, it made it a hard season for them”.

Guardiola wants to see a significant improvement from his players after Sunday’s setback, but stresses that changing strategy and deploying long balls will never be a solution he supports.

Guardiola continued. “But I saw many things I like – our pressing and our solidarity”. “Of course we made a few mistakes in our build-up part”. Without that we can not win absolutely anything. “Four or five times building up we made clear chances”.

‘The two goals we scored came because we attacked the byline, ‘ Guardiola said. “It was two crosses – one from Sterling and one from Jesus [Navas]”.

City struggled against the best sides in the country last season under Pellegrini, picking up just two points from their six games against the rest of the Premier League’s top four in Leicester City, Arsenal and Tottenham.

“I think past year was a surprise to me because of Pellegrini, everybody knew that he would leave, it made it a hard season for them”.