Pep Guardiola urged Manchester City not “to lose focus” after Sunday’s 2-1 win over Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium struck a significant blow for his team in the title race.
The victory moves City to three points below Arsenal, with Guardiola’s team having six games left, one more than Mikel Arteta’s.
The manager said: “It gives us hope, I said to the guys: ‘Enjoy the moment but don’t lose focus right now as we have three or four long weeks left.’
“People say we have momentum but when you see them [Arsenal] compete they are an extraordinary team, otherwise you cannot be all season top of the Premier League and unbeaten in the Champions League.
“I know how difficult it is to beat them once, imagine twice. They stepped a little bit higher in the Carabao Cup final [which City won]. Who is top of the league? We are not. In goal difference, they are better. But of course, we have hopes and still extend the chance to fight until the end.”
Rayan Cherki’s brilliant individual 16th-minute opener was cancelled out almost immediately by Kai Havertz’s opportunist charge-down of Gianluigi Donnarumma’s clearance before Erling Haaland secured victory from close range.
Guardiola said: “This was the best two teams in England – a good advertisement worldwide. When I see what I see in my team, what can I say?”
While Arsenal’s goal difference is 37, City have a chance to improve theirs of 36 in Wednesday’s trip to Burnley, who are second-bottom. After that the last five games are Everton (away), Brentford (home), Bournemouth (away), then Crystal Palace and Aston Villa (each home).
Arsenal’s next match is Saturday’s hosting of Newcastle, before Fulham (home) West Ham (away), Burnley (home) and Crystal Palace (away).
Rodri may not be available for Burnley after being forced off towards the end. “Some groin problem,” said Guardiola. “We will make tests later or Monday.”
Haaland battled throughout with Gabriel Magalhães, the latter fortunate not to be sent off after the break when pushing his head into that of the Norwegian. Haaland said: “If I fell on the floor, which I will not do unless somebody really attacks me, it would maybe have been a red card. It is what it is. Every game now is a final. The Burnley game is as important as this. We need to focus, stay humble and concentrate on the next one.”
While “stay humble” was what Haaland said to Arsenal after last season’s draw in the corresponding fixture, his winner arrived when he moved ahead of Gabriel.
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“I was quite happy, I have to be honest. It was a great moment for me and a great win,” he said. “It’s always like this, a lot of fighting with Gabriel. I scored the goal – I won the battle over him in that decisive moment. It’s for other people to decide if I won the battle overall.”
Haaland had high praise for Bernardo Silva when City’s captain cleared an Arsenal attack, preventing the ball reaching Viktor Gyökeres. “When he headed that cross away, I told him: ‘You were like effing Cannavaro,’” said the striker.
Arteta was left disappointed. “Very upset with the result, obviously,” said Arsenal’s manager. “We came here to win the game. We prepared to do that, take the game to the areas that we believe we could win it. We certainly did that, even though we started the game a goal down and psychologically we had to play with that. We’ve done it. But the reality is in the two boxes was the difference and that’s what decided the game.
“Obviously, the players were very disappointed not to get a result. That’s the feeling, immediately you could tell that they were talking about, and they said: ‘OK, we lost an opportunity today, but we have the biggest one now in the next five games, so let’s do it.’
“Today if they need to be more convinced, they are now more convinced. They were talking about it in the dressing room. It’s a new league now. They have a game in hand. We have three points of advantage and five games to play. We’re not going to stop and we’re going to go again, that’s for sure.”
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