Guardiola: Arsenal have it easier than Man City in title race

Guardiola believes Arsenal’s motivation to end a 20-year wait for a Premier League title gives them an advantage

Pep Guardiola has told Mikel Arteta he has it “easy” in the title race compared to Manchester City as he ramped up the mind games ahead of Sunday’s crunch clash with Arsenal.
Arsenal face champions City at the Etihad Stadium hoping to take another decisive step towards a first Premier League title for 20 years.
City – who have won five of the last six Premier Leagues – are aiming to become the first English top-flight side to win four consecutive titles.
But Guardiola claimed the motivation that comes with trying to end a long title drought gives Arsenal an advantage in much the way it did Liverpool in 2019/20, when the Merseyside club finally ended a 30-year wait for the title.
“I said it a thousand million times, the biggest success of this club, organisation is that many years still we are there. People cannot imagine how difficult it is,” the City manager said.
“To fight for one title that you haven’t won for many years is, ‘Wow, it is easy’. But now being here for many, many years and still being there is, ‘Wow’.
“It is the benchmark for the new generations in this club because [what we have done] is really, really good.
“I could not expect honestly being here [with] the problems we had this season, being in this position right now.
“And we want to extend it. We want to try and be here longer, but it’s the most complicated thing.”
City currently trail Arsenal and Liverpool – who play Brighton earlier in the day – by a point and Guardiola says no-one should underestimate the motivation of Arteta and his players to end a two-decade long wait for the title.
“Of course it is important what we have done before, but I didn’t expect to arrive – like I said after the last international break – being where we are now,” Guardiola said.
“But after more than 20 years Arsenal haven’t won the Premier League, so they will have something to prove and that’s normal. When Liverpool won the title after many years without, for Jurgen [Klopp] that gives you something special.
“In our first year [in 2017/18 winning the title], it was like, ‘Oh God, we will give everything in every single game to win the Premier League’.
“But what we have to do in [this] game is be ourselves. Our players will bring what they need – like they did [in the 3-1 win] against [Manchester] United – to make it a good performance.”
City have a disappointing record against the top six this season. Their wins home and away to United aside, the champions have yet to beat any of their leading rivals in the Premier League this term and lost 1-0 at Arsenal in October, albeit without their influential midfielders Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne through suspension and injury respectively.
“The past is the past. I didn’t know that stat,” Guardiola said. “Normally our stats are good but if that’s the reality it doesn’t say how we have played in some of the games.
“[In the 3-3 draw] against Tottenham we were really, really good. Against United we won both games. Against Liverpool at home [1-1 draw] we played incredibly well but could not win.
“I don’t pay attention about the top six or the top-seven teams. Now we play against Arsenal and if we win, they don’t win – and that’s why we have to start winning important games to get that advantage.
“Of course, it [the record against the top six] has to change. To win the Premier League you have to win almost all the games because I don’t think Arsenal or Liverpool are going to drop many points.”
Guardiola launched a seven-minute tirade about City’s April schedule as a controversial fixture list threatens to dent the club’s hopes of a second successive Treble.
The City manager is furious about the scheduling of his team’s FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea at Wembley and a number of their Premier League fixtures next month.
Guardiola also claims the March international break needs a “rethink” after losing Kyle Walker and John Stones for Sunday’s title clash with Arsenal due to injuries picked up with England, but says he has given up expecting any help from Uefa, Fifa or the broadcasters.
City are the only side left in the FA Cup who are still playing in Europe this season but Guardiola is livid that has been overlooked in the scheduling.
Last season’s Treble winners are due to play Chelsea at 5.15pm on Sunday April 20, just three days after their Champions League quarter-final, second leg, against Real Madrid at the Etihad.
Manchester United and Coventry City will contest the other semi-final a day later, even though neither are in action that midweek.
It is the fourth season in a row that City will have faced an FA Cup semi-final on a Saturday having played the second leg of their Champions League last-eight tie on a Wednesday, and an angry Guardiola expressed bewilderment at that logic.
“We play Wednesday against Madrid in the second leg here so we could play Saturday or Sunday in the FA Cup. Coventry, United, Chelsea, they are on holiday for one week. So why are we playing Saturday?” the City manager said.
“Every year we play Saturday. Why don’t they give us one more day when Coventry, Chelsea, United they don’t play [in the] Champions League or Europa League? Why don’t we play on Sunday?”
Although they beat Sheffield United in the FA Cup semi-finals last season en route to a historic Treble, City lost to Liverpool and Chelsea in their previous two Wembley meetings at that stage of the competition following gruelling trips to Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund respectively in the Champions League three days earlier.
“We play in the quarter finals many times in the last year and when the second leg is Wednesday every time after we play Saturday,” Guardiola said. “And when you play away, in Dortmund, arrive Thursday afternoon back here and Friday take a train or plane to London, four or five hours. And Saturday we play against Liverpool, Chelsea or all the incredible teams. We are exhausted.”
Guardiola has also been left bemused by the scheduling of City’s Premier League fixtures next week, when they host Aston Villa at 8.15pm on Wednesday before travelling to south London to play Crystal Palace in the 12.30pm kick-off three days later.
By contrast, Real Madrid play Athletic Bilbao on Sunday and then not again until City visit the Bernabeu nine days later.
“So Aston Villa, we play at 8.15 next Wednesday and then play at 12.30 on Saturday [against Crystal Palace],” Guardiola said.
“And after we go to Madrid on the Tuesday. Madrid have nine days to prepare for our game. Nine days! They play this weekend and then not again until our game. I would like to think ‘Oh just give me one more day! One more day and the difference is a lot!’ But there is no chance.
“For the broadcasters are we going to fight? Their answer – I pay a lot of money [to televise the games]. That’s why. So we play Saturday [against Chelsea]. And after we play Thursday [at Brighton in the Premier League]. Why aren’t we playing Wednesday instead of Thursday and Sunday [against Nottingham Forest]?”
Guardiola says he is at a loss to explain why the Premier League does not seek to assist its European representatives in the way their counterparts do on the continent.
“They don’t think about that,” he said. “Do you think they think, ‘Oh City play then …?’ In France, Paris Saint-Germain don’t play [in Ligue 1] between their [Champions League] quarter-final games. They have the time to do it. In Portugal, they often play on Friday before the Champions League.
“I don’t know [why England does not help] and I don’t even want to ask because they will have their own business and decisions. I’d like to know the answers – why all the time on Saturday and not Sunday. Because one day makes a lot of difference at this stage with injured players, with the accumulation of games.”
Guardiola said City have often found a way to navigate the scheduling problems but believes injuries to key players like Walker and Stones will make the job harder this season, starting against Arsenal.
“I defend my club and for my club it’s really tough, [playing] every three days, three days, three days and the other clubs don’t have that situation,” he said.
“The calendar has always been like that with us. There has always been less days to recover and we did it. If you have all of the squad in front of you … but in the next days and weeks it cannot happen [for us].”
Guardiola believes the March international games can pose a particular threat ahead of the final two months of the domestic calendar but has no expectation Uefa or Fifa would ever consider amending the schedule.
“It should rethink but it will not rethink,” he said. “Uefa has its own business, the broadcasters have their own business. I can give my opinion.
“I don’t want more advantage than the other one, we’re not desperate for this advantage.
“[But] Uefa and Fifa, it’s a problem with the amount of games, with the [Club] World Cup at the end of the next season. How many teams in the Club World Cup, 32?
“To play three weeks in the States, it’s an honour, a pleasure, a lot of money for the club, it’s perfect. Then after we’re going to start the next season, one or two weeks holiday for the players. That’s the problem, more competition, more games and the players’ fatigued.
“That’s why Kevin [De Bruyne] was five months injured [this season], it accumulates season after season.”