Pep Guardiola expressed pride in his Manchester City side despite conceding a last-gasp equaliser in their 1-1 draw with Arsenal on Sunday, Softfootball reports.
City took the lead early at the Emirates, with Erling Haaland finishing a blistering counterattack just nine minutes in. Guardiola’s men then defended resolutely for over 80 minutes, only for substitute Gabriel Martinelli to rescue a point for the Gunners deep into stoppage time, a result that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta claims he is disappointed in despite expressing pride over his team’s performance.
After victories against Manchester United in the league and the Champions League victory against Napoli in the past week, Guardiola acknowledged in a post-game interview posted on the club’s official website, that the physical and mental strain his players had endured before facing one of the Premier League’s strongest sides.
He stated:
We cannot make analysis without talking about what happened this week, We played tough games against United and Napoli. Hats off to the team and the resilience.When you are not effective in the pressing, always it is difficult. I think the result is fair.
We made some transitions but I think Arsenal was better. It’s a better result than last season and better against United last week, so we will take that. They were better and we were tired. We played an emotional game against Napoli and then we had four or five hours to arrive to London.
It was so tough but we were there. We had to be so strong in terms of mentality, and we have done it. We have a lot of fatigue, how many injuries with John, Cherki, Ait-Nouri, Nathan was out and then Khusanov got injured.
The City boss admitted Arsenal edged the contest but stressed that context mattered. City had just 33% possession, allowing Arsenal to dictate the tempo. Yet Guardiola defended his pragmatic approach, claiming that the situation warranted it.
He said:
We try not to be like this but when the opponent is better and we have Erling who can run with such power, we have to do this
Remember how many counter attacks we scored with Leroy [Sane], Raheem [Sterling] and Kevin [De Bruyne]? I would prefer not to do it but I would expect in this level we have to do it.
For Guardiola, the draw may not have been perfect, but it showed City’s capacity to dig deep under pressure—a quality he believes will prove vital in the months ahead.
