Interim Arsenal boss Freddie Ljungberg wants to see his side be more cynical after they were swept aside by Manchester City at the Emirates on Sunday.

Kevin De Bruyne bagged a brace and set up Raheem Sterling - all before half-time - as the Citizens crusied to a 3-0 win, but they were given a helping hand by the Gunners' hapless defence who made it all too easy for them.

Having highlighted the transition as weakness after his first game in charge against Norwich City, Ljungberg is aware that it is still causing problems and wants to see his side be more cynical when teams hit them on the break.

"We got done on the transitions again," said the Swede.

"One of the goals we had five of us against two of them and they still scored.

"We worked a lot on being balanced and having players back for the counter, but then De Bruyne showed his quality.

"Maybe it shows the difference in the teams. They score from those chances with top, top players.

"I think what we can learn is that we got done on the transitions again.

"If you look at City, when we were able to counter against them - and that was one of our game plans - they had five yellow cards from bringing us down when we had a chance to counter.

"That's tactical and they worked on that. That's something that we need to do.

"Maybe we need to learn to be more cynical when opponents have a chance to counter us. That is a bit of a weakness of ours and maybe we need to take those fouls."

Despite being blown away by Pep Guardiola's side, Ljungberg believes that Arsenal should have the quality to compete with the top six, adding: "I think we should be good enough to compete, but it shows Liverpool and City are very, very good.

"I think we put up a similar, almost the same lineup, against West Ham where we played really well and could've won 4-1 or 5-1.

"We played it against City and they punished us straight away before we lost 3-0. I think that shows the difference in quality in teams in this league."