Pep Guardiola closed Saturday\u2019s press conference with an unmistakable show of support for West Ham United ahead of their game with Arsenal. As he left the room he crossed his arms above his head to mimic West Ham supporters and shouted: “Come on you Irons!”<\/p>\n
The intervention was part humour, part calculation. While defeat for Arsenal would be City\u2019s preference, a draw would be good enough to bring fate back into Guardiola\u2019s hands, with the two teams\u2019 goal difference just one apart\u2014Arsenal\u2019s 41 giving them a narrow edge over City\u2019s 40.<\/p>\n
City will finally catch up with Arsenal when it comes to games played on Wednesday when Crystal Palace visit the Etihad, and scoring goals will still be the order of business as that will be the deciding factor if the two sides end the season level on points.<\/p>\n
The season has been turbulent for Guardiola\u2019s side. An unconvincing start to the campaign and another slump at the start of 2026 had many concluding they would not be part of the title race. In April, however, a 2\u20131 win over Arsenal left Guardiola\u2019s team viewed as favourites, only for a 3\u20133 collapse against Everton to leave them chasing with just three games left.<\/p>\n
Asked about the state of the run-in, Guardiola was candid about his appetite for the challenge. “I love it,” Guardiola said of the chaos. “I love to be here again. Finish second again minimum so I love it.<\/p>\n
He added a perspective on the recent months: “I didn\u2019t enjoy last season, it was difficult, but the Carabao [Cup] is in our pocket, the FA Cup final at Wembley is the most beautiful day of the season and I love it. ]”<\/p>\n
The chief\u2019s final gesture at the press conference was lighthearted, but it underlined a clear truth: marginal details and the ability to score when required will determine the destination of the title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guardiola urged West Ham with a four-word cheer and stressed goal difference could decide the title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,238,172],"tags":[1162,1637,1663],"class_list":["post-13724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-manchester-city","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-assists","tag-statistics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}