Mikel Arteta labelled Myles Lewis-Skelly's display against Manchester City as "beautiful", as the teenager took centre stage in Arsenal's 5-1 thrashing of the defending champions.

Lewis-Skelly was on target in the 62nd minute with a fine individual effort, with his right-footed strike helped into the top corner by visiting goalkeeper Stefan Ortega. 

Martin Odegaard's finish after just two minutes was cancelled out by Erling Haaland's header in the second half, but one-way traffic in favour of the Gunners soon ensued. 

Arsenal were back ahead almost immediately through Thomas Partey's deflected strike, before Lewis-Skelly, Kai Havertz and substitute Ethan Nwaneri sealed the victory. 

In the form of Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly, this was only the fourth time that two players aged 18 or younger had scored for the same team in a Premier League game, and first since James Vaughan and Victor Anichebe netted for Everton against Fulham in April 2007.

But it was Lewis-Skelly's overall performance that caught the eye, winning the most duels (seven) and most fouls (three) for Arsenal against Pep Guardiola's side. 

"You need big individual performances to beat them. Myles was certainly one of them, the maturity he showed and competitiveness as well," Arteta said. 

"He plays with that personality and he's scored a beautiful goal. He has been pushing us since he has been here. We like his character and personality. He has so much courage.

"He has qualities that fit into the way we want to play. He got some minutes, and he is asking for more. He deserves to play."

Arsenal's victory saw them keep pace with leaders Liverpool at the Premier League summit, with the Gunners six points behind Arne Slot's side, who have a game in hand. 

Arteta's side, however, are going about another title challenge in the right way. They have now gone unbeaten in 14 consecutive Premier League games (won nine, drawn five) for the first time since December 2018 under Unai Emery (also a run of 14).

For Arteta, there was also some personal pride against Guardiola, with whom he spent three-and-a-half years at City as an assistant head coach. 

The Arsenal boss lost nine of his first 10 managerial meetings with Guardiola (won one), but after today's win, has become only the third manager to go five games unbeaten in all competitions against the Spaniard (won two, drawn three), after Thomas Tuchel (2016 to 2021) and Jurgen Klopp (2021 to 2022).

But Arteta was quick to relay the importance of his latest triumph over Guardiola to keep the pressure on Liverpool in the title race. 

"It is a great day for us, especially with the necessity that we had to win the game. The manner that we have done it I am really pleased," he added. "We had to suffer and at moments we needed a bit of luck, and we had it.

"They hold you very deep and in those moments you have to suffer and, as I said, there were moments when we were lucky. Overall, we scored some beautiful goals and the team showed a high competitive level."