{"id":622239,"date":"2026-04-21T22:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/622239\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T22:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:05:08","slug":"guardiola-dismisses-stupid-things-said-about-city-celebrations-after-beating-arsenal-manchester-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/622239\/","title":{"rendered":"Guardiola dismisses \u2018stupid things\u2019 said about City celebrations after beating Arsenal | Manchester City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pep Guardiola has hit out at criticism of Manchester City\u2019s celebrations following Sunday\u2019s victory over Arsenal<\/a>, describing such comments as \u201cstupid things\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the final whistle of the 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium, one that took City to within three points of the Premier League leaders with a game in hand, Gianluigi Donnarumma jumped into the crowd behind his goal while many of City\u2019s others players also celebrated in emphatic fashion.<\/p>\n

Among those to question this were Wayne Rooney and Danny Murphy in their capacity as pundits on Sunday night\u2019s Match of the Day. Rooney described the celebrations as being \u201ca bit over the top\u201d while Murphy said: \u201cIf you are an Arsenal player, you are thinking: \u2018Hold on, we\u2019re still leading.\u2019 It was a heavy celebration, I was surprised with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople can say whatever stupid things they want to say,\u201d Guardiola said when looking ahead to City\u2019s trip to Burnley on Wednesday night. \u201cThey celebrated because they know the value of the opponent. They knew if we didn\u2019t win it would be \u2018bye-bye [to the title race]\u2019. They won and still we are there. How can they not celebrate it? As much as you respect the opponent and the fans of the opponent, celebrate however you want.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course we are not going to celebrate in the middle of the week if we win 3-0 or 4-0 and the opponent is different. Everybody knew that game, it was a final. Especially for us. Maybe not for them but for us it was a final and of course you have to celebrate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

If City win at Turf Moor they will move level with Arsenal on 70 points and also, at the very least, level on +37 goal difference. City have scored 65 goals in 32 games, conceding 29, while Arsenal have scored 63 goals in 33 games, conceding 26. If the two teams finish the season with the same number of points, then the one with the superior goal difference will finish top. \u201cIt can happen but you cannot be distracted,\u201d said Guardiola. \u201cIf [we chase this], we\u2019ll be unbalanced and when unbalanced, we are going to concede a lot of goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodri is set to miss the trip to Burnley, and possibly Saturday\u2019s FA Cup semi-final against Southampton, because of the groin injury the midfielder sustained against Arsenal. \u201cWe will see for the next games,\u201d Guardiola said about when Rodri might be able to return. \u201cMaybe Southampton or maybe in 12 days [against Everton].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola has hit out at criticism of Manchester City\u2019s celebrations following Sunday\u2019s victory over Arsenal, describing such…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-622239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}