Arteta wants players to 'keep fighting' as Arsenal suffer 'painful' defeat

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said players should keep fighting in order to turn things around as the club suffered a defeat against Manchester City, which he termed as "really painful".

Manchester City defeated Arsenal 4-1 in the Carabao Cup quarter-final here on Wednesday.

"A really painful moment, again. We started the game by conceding a really early and really soft goal and after that, in this moment, to get through that is obviously difficult. But the players reacted to be fair and they started to grow as the game was moving forwards," the club's official website quoted Arteta as saying.

"We scored a goal, a really good goal and after that I think that we were the better team for the next 25 minutes. But when we had the best moments in the game, we conceded another soft goal and that makes it even harder. But still, we kept going and we had an open situation where we could've played Laca through and we missed the pass and then they scored the third goal in an offside position. Obviously, after that moment, the game is over," he added.

Arsenal are witnessing a dismal run in this season of the Premier League. Seven back to back matches without a win in Premier League has put Arsenal in a difficult situation. The club is placed in the 15th position on the standings with 14 points.

Arteta further said: "It is something that we are fighting against but we're going to keep fighting. There isn't any other way. It's a really hard result to take but we have to look at things that can help us in the future as well. I have to say that the young players, in a really difficult scenario, I think they did really well.