Manchester City v Arsenal: Laurent Koscielny demands a 'much better' performance from the Gunners against City than Napoli defeat

Defender insists an improvement is needed from Wednesday's loss

Laurent Koscielny wins possession against Napoli on Wednesday night (GETTY IMAGES)

Laurent Koscielny has said that Arsenal have to play "much better" than they did in Wednesday's 2-0 defeat at Napoli if they are to get a result against Manchester City. The crucial Premier League clash at the Etihad Stadium takes place on Saturday lunch-time.

Arsenal sit five points clear at the top of the league, and six points ahead of fourth-placed City, and then face fellow contenders Chelsea nine days later on 23 December.

The Gunners moved into the last 16 of the Champions League despite Wednesday's result, but only as Group F runners up, and now have the task of facing either Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain in the next stage.

"We need to play much better to win at Man City," Koscielny told arsenal.com. "It's two hard games that await us so it will be difficult because they are two of the best teams and we need some points.

"We are on top of the table so we need to keep this [lead] and December is a very important month in the Premier League. We need to be ready and to fight to win these games."