Pep Guardiola has admitted that he did not foresee Manchester City being able to retain their Premier League crown after his side were left in Arsenal’s wake in the early stages of the season.
The two teams made very different starts to the campaign with Arsenal establishing an early buffer at the top of the table. However, City have clawed their way back into the title race with the initiative switching firmly to them ahead of the two clubs meeting at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday evening.
“It’s good to be here. After the first round [of fixtures] Arsenal did, it was difficult to think we would be here in that moment,” said Guardiola, whose team trailed by eight points in January.
“So it is a really, really important game. We could get points our opponents cannot, so our focus is on what we have to do.”
Arsenal may take a five-point lead with them to Manchester but the reigning champions have two games in hand. Also, momentum already appears to be with City, who have won their last six games while Arsenal have been held to three successive draws.
Of the importance of the top-two clash, the City manager said: “It is really important, but not decisive because there are still many tough games for both sides. We have more tough games to play but we cannot deny how important it is.”
Guardiola hopes the home supporters make it an uncomfortable evening for the visitors who last won on their patch in January 2015, ten games ago. He has called for the fans to arrive “three hours before kick-off” and wants his team to take control of their own destiny.
He admitted “perfection doesn’t exist in football” but his players are currently testing that notion, harbouring hopes of a Treble. City are on a 16-game unbeaten run, have already progressed to the FA Cup final, where they will face Manchester United, and have a Champions League semi-final with Real Madrid next month.
Such a pronounced crescendo to the end of their season can be attributed to them treating every game “as a final”, according to Guardiola. “We can see the end: really, really close,” he said.
“My team arrive in the end of the season knowing we can lose games and the situation will be over. In October, November you cannot have that feeling — especially when you make back-to-back championships.
“The first season we made 100 points and started like every game was a final. Now we don’t have that. But in the last few months that is the truth, [we have treated each game as a final] along with the FA Cup and Champions League.”
'We don't regret selling pair to Arsenal'
For this latest “final” friendships must be pushed aside. Not only will Mikel Arteta be returning to the club that he spent three and a half years as Guardiola’s assistant before taking the Arsenal job in 2019, but Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko will also be familiar faces back at the Etihad.
Guardiola acknowledge that he is not able to talk with his close friend Arteta as much now that the pair work at separate clubs and live in different parts of the country, but he was still effusive in his praise for the work the 41-year-old has done in north London.
“I was watching Arsenal with Arsene Wenger and they always had incredible details and care for the ball, and all the players they selected to play had the biggest quality, biggest skills,” Guardiola said.
“But I think Mikel has brought them another dimension. They are huge competitors in all senses, so aggressive. In the two games we played this season we felt it. It will be very difficult.”
It is no exaggeration to say that Jesus and Zinchenko, both signed from City last summer, have proved to be the missing pieces in Arteta’s young side, bringing with them a winning mentality developed at City.
Yet even though they have strengthened a rival, Guardiola insists there are no regrets over the decision to let the pair go. He said: “The club made the decision they believed they had to take. When this kind of stuff happens it is because the three parties agree. It is not about just one part.
“The players are agreed, the club want to sell, the club want to buy. They agreed and the club took a decision.
“Before you ask the question, ‘Is it a risk?’ – they are happy, we are happy. We don’t have any complaints about Gabriel and Oleks, who they are and what they have done for this club in the last years.”