Pepped up and primed to pounce

"I know he finishes his contract. Now we have time to discuss that. What impresses me most is his huge quality.

"He looks like a boy. He played awesome. It is not in terms of when he has the ball, it's the personality.

"When we are in trouble, he goes there, asks for the ball, pass, pass. When Yaya plays at that level, because he is fit and focused, he is an exceptional, exceptional player."

German winger Sane canceled out Theo Walcott's fifth-minute opener two minutes into the second half, bursting onto David Silva's lofted pass to fire his first City goal.

Sane got the benefit of the doubt in a tight offside call and Arsenal was aggrieved that an offside Silva also got away with swishing a foot at Sterling's 71st-minute winner, when the Spaniard could have been ruled as interfering.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger said his side fell to "two offside goals" and suggested match officials were unfairly protected from criticism, likening it to "lions in the zoo".

Wenger was also critical of the referee following Arsenal's 2-1 loss at Everton last week, arguing the winning goal had resulted from an incorrectly awarded corner.

Arsenal now trails Chelsea by nine points, and Wenger said his team will need to tighten up defensively before it could even think about chasing down the west Londoners.

"We have to come back next week and win our game (at home to West Bromwich Albion)," he said.

"We had a horrible week, absolutely horrible, and what is worse, out of two good performances we get zero points and out of two leading positions, we lost two games. That of course is very disappointing.

"Before we think about the nine points, we have to come back to be realistic. For a while we have not kept a clean sheet (eight league games).

"If you want to play at the top, you have to keep clean sheets."