Mikel Arteta Says Man City Cannot Blame Pep Guardiola's Absence or Poor Atmosphere for Lyon Defeat

Manchester City assistant manager Mikel Arteta refused to make excuses for his side's disappointing performance against Lyon as they suffered their fourth

Manchester City assistant manager Mikel Arteta refused to make excuses for his side's disappointing performance against Lyon as they suffered their fourth consecutive Champions League defeat.

First half goals from Maxwel Cornet and Nabil Fekir gave Lyon a deserved win, with Bernardo Silva's second half strike failing to be the catalyst for a City comeback. The match was played in front of a crowd of 40,111, more than 10,000 down on Manchester City's Premier League average, but Arteta did not want to use the atmosphere as a reason for the defeat.

6 - Six of the last eight instances of Manchester City conceding twice in the first half of a match at the Etihad have been in the Champions League. Theme. pic.twitter.com/itnIPpZnZE

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"I wouldn't use that as an excuse," said the Spaniard, quoted by BBC Sport. "We have had this type of crowd in the Champions League before and we were able to win the game.

"If you ask me what is the ideal scenario, it is to have a full stadium every time, people supporting the team and being behind the team like crazy. We know in this competition that some weeks it doesn't happen. But I don't think that's an excuse for the result."

Arteta was standing in for Pep Guardiola, who watched from the stands as he served a touchline ban carried over from last season, but Arteta refused to say whether the manager's absence had been a contributing factor to City's downfall.

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"The reality is Pep was not here and we lost the game," said Arteta. "If Pep had been on the touchline I couldn't tell you whether we would have won 5-0 or lost 3-0.

"We started slow and we were not consistent in the way we were trying to play. We lost many duels and at this level you pay the price for that."

City travel to Hoffenheim in their next Group F match, while Lyon host Shakhtar Donetsk. Hoffenheim and Shakhtar drew 2-2 in Kharkiv on Wednesday.