Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta claims his players did not follow through with their plan for Sunday’s match against Manchester City. Raheem Sterling put City into the lead inside two minutes at the Emirates. Sterling headed home a Riyad Mahrez cross after being left unmarked in the box.

City dominated possession but failed to add anymore to the scoreline, seeing out a 1-0 victory in north London.

After the match, Arteta said his team had worked on similar scenarios to Sterling’s goal.

And therefore it was the nature of the goal which annoyed him the most.

“We got something wrong. We didn’t do it in the first 10 minutes,” Arteta told Sky Sports.

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“Today they played a little bit differently but within that organisation they can do lots of really good things. They manage the situation really well.”

Arsenal take on Benfica in the second leg of their Europa League last-32 tie on Thursday.

The game is evenly poised at 1-1 and Arteta knows the importance of the competition to the club.

“We have a final on Thursday because we want to continue in the competition,” he said.

“We have to sleep, eat and we won’t have time to train then we fly to Greece.”