Mathieu Flamini has admitted that it will be "difficult" for Arsenal to win the Premier League after being held to a 1-1 draw with Manchester City.

The Gunners could have reduced the gap between themselves and leaders Chelsea to three points with victory over Manuel Pellegrini's men at the Emirates Stadium this evening.

However, the Blues' 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace this afternoon went unpunished as both title rivals settled for a share of the spoils in North London, and Flamini concedes that he is not optimistic over his team's chances of triumph.

He told reporters: "We wanted to win this game, especially for the fans after the 6-0 loss to Chelsea and draw against Swansea.

"We came back after half time and we saw opportunities to create goals. We needed to win the second balls and we tried to get the second one for the victory but unfortunately couldn't.

"It was a pleasure to score but today was important. For us, it is important to recover then we have a difficult game against Everton. It is going to be difficult now [to win the title]."

David Silva opened the scoring for the visitors in the first half before the Frenchman restored parity for Arsene Wenger's men on 53 minutes.