Arsenal 1 Man City 1: Title now ‘difficult’ for us, admits Flamini

Mathieu Flamini admits that Arsenal’s title hopes now hang by a thread after the Gunners were held to a draw by Manchester City.

City took the lead at Emirates Stadium when the ball ricocheted in off David Silva in the 18th minute.

I think today the team showed great character and personality again

Mathieu Flamini

But Flamini fired home in the 53rd minute to earn a point for Arsene Wenger’s men, with Lukas Podolski missing the chance win it for the Gunners.

The draw left Arsenal fourth in the table and five points behind leaders Chelsea with six games left to play.

And asked about Arsenal’s title hopes, Flamini said: “Let’s say for us now it’s important to recover and then we have a difficult game at Everton.

“We know we have a few games to play and we’ll see at the end of the season.

“Of course we know it’s going to be very difficult now but we’ll play game after game trying to win every single one.”

Saturday’s draw came after the disappointment of conceding a late equaliser against Swansea City on Tuesday night.

And Flamini hailed the north Londoners’ spirit as they came from behind to earn a point against the Citizens.

“We have worked hard this year,” said Flamini. “This week was a difficult one – we heard a lot of negative things. I think on Tuesday the spirit was great because we were losing 1-0 and came back to 2-1.

“Today again everyone thought we were going to lose it. We came back to 1-1 and pushed for the second one.

“I think today the team showed great character and personality again.”