Arsenal made a late comeback to draw 3-3 with Southampton on Friday and their lead over City at the top of the Premier League is five points.
Pep Guardiola’s side crucially have two games in hand and they host Arsenal at Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.
Arsenal head their on a poor run of form, having drawn three games on the spin and seen their lead at the top cut from eight points to five.
“I cannot wait, these are the games you want to play,” said Arteta, when asked about Wednesday’s showdown at the Etihad.
“When everything is at stake you have to go there to win. The game will be prepared to that, that is for sure.
“It is the beauty of this sport, you want to be in these positions. We will have an incredible trip to Manchester and we will prepare really well.”
Arsenal had been on course to suffer a painful loss to Southampton as, with two minutes of normal time remaining, they were 3-1 down.
Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard struck in the dying moments to salvage a draw, but they could not find a winner.
“Obviously disappointed with the result,” said Arteta. “We made it really difficult for ourselves with the way we started the game, giving one away and then another.
“We kept trying and created chance after chance, we went for it and the atmosphere at the end we all believed we would win it and we had two really good chances.
“The support that we get, the love we get, it is complete cohesion with the spirit of the players. We were so, so, so close to winning.
“I didn’t see anybody hiding, everyone was going for it and really wanted it.”
