Nevertheless, Guardiola was impressed with how his side fought, the positives over last season’s result and credited the “incredible” spirit of his side, who have lost twice in their opening five matches.
“I’m really proud of this fight,” he said. “We recovered many, many things that we missed last season.
“We have an incredible spirit. Of course, we cannot sustain for all the season to play in the way we played, and we don’t want it. But I give incredible power and credit to the opponents, Arsenal.
“Especially since (Manchester) United (a 3-0 win for City), we start to recover many things that define our teams for many, many years. We can do better, yeah, we do it. We could do a few things, many decisions, yeah, we do it.
“And we have to play a little bit more with the opponent, yes, we will do it. But first comes the spirit that we have shown this week. And we have to take care, this kind of thing, like a father, a mother takes care of their son.”
City are currently ninth in the Premier League and take on Huddersfield Town in the League Cup on Wednesday, before hosting Burnley on Saturday.
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Watch moment Dembele, Bonmati announced as Ballon d’Or winners
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