Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was delighted with his midfield's focus for their 1-0 win against Manchester City.
Arteta admits his players had to be focused and committed to keep control of City's midfield and the way they play.
The manager said: "The players have to stand up there and execute against players that are top quality, and we give them something in the first two minutes with the corner and they almost score a goal, you can not give them anything.
"They can still earn it because they are top quality and can produce those moments in any moment, we have discussed a lot about that, it is stressful because they change constantly, the spaces, rotations, they are constantly threatening you in certain areas and you have to be really really aware of what they are doing to try to match it up, and with the ball as well, because they are provoking you with certain things and you have to be patient and for that bit today was top because I knew the crowd could react in the way that it did, it's what we demanded to do and what we needed to do and we did it better in the second half, we did it much better and I think it was really helpful."
On finally defeating City, Arteta also said: "Well, I don't know if it was a barrier. Obviously, it's something that we needed to go through. To beat them, first of all, you have to lose against them. We have to lose probably the way we lost at the Etihad, because we lost in two different ways, last season when we were the better team in the first half and then we conceded the goal after Tomiyasu's backpass and De Bruyne scoring. But the team showed a real maturity today, that maturity comes from experiences and sometimes you need that to become a better team."