Pep Guardiola delivered a frank message to his squad after Manchester City closed to within two points of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League. His instructions were simple: enjoy a short break and then return ready to work. “I say to the players: \u2018Guys, what we have to do is take a lot of caipirinhas, daiquiris in these three days [off]! Enjoy life,\u201d Guardiola beamed post-match. “And after that, make a proper three training sessions, and go to Leeds,\u2019”<\/p>\n
The manager underlined the inexperience inside his group of players in these exact circumstances. “70% of the players have never been in that situation, and I don\u2019t play. So we have to live it, they know that every game will be like this. Especially at home, with five home games left. Today was the best crowd of the year, it was unbelievable with our people.” He also offered a terse forecast: “Many things are going to happen,”<\/p>\n
Manchester City\u2019s history in recent years is highlighted in the context of the title race. Since their 2012 coronation they have amassed eight Premier League titles, six of which have been won under Guardiola. By contrast, Arsenal remain on three Premier League crowns since 2004.<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta acknowledged the pressure bearing down on his side after dropped points but rejected a dismissive label aimed at his players. “You lose two points against Wolves in the manner that the game played out, and you have to take it on the chin. That\u2019s it. It\u2019s part of our role,” he said in the build-up to Sunday\u2019s North London Derby against Tottenham Hotspur . “But it\u2019s not part of my vocabulary and I don\u2019t see it like this because I don\u2019t think anybody wants to do that as an intention. I wouldn\u2019t use that word.”<\/p>\n
City\u2019s turnover at the Etihad means many men in Guardiola\u2019s squad do not carry the same runners-up baggage some Arsenal players have accrued over the last three seasons. With difficult fixtures and a compressed run-in approaching, the contest at the summit remains finely poised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guardiola told City players to enjoy three days off while City closed to Arsenal at the top. next up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,238,969],"tags":[1162],"class_list":["post-7018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-manchester-city","category-premier-league","tag-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7018","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=7018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}