{"id":540555,"date":"2026-04-20T06:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T06:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/540555\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T06:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T06:02:07","slug":"guardiola-calls-for-focus-in-title-run-in-after-haaland-cuts-down-arsenal-pep-guardiola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/540555\/","title":{"rendered":"Guardiola calls for focus in title run-in after Haaland cuts down Arsenal | Pep Guardiola"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pep Guardiola urged Manchester City not \u201cto lose focus\u201d after Sunday\u2019s 2-1 win over Arsenal <\/a>at the Etihad Stadium struck a significant blow for his team in the title race.<\/p>\n

The victory moves City to three points below Arsenal, with Guardiola\u2019s team having six games left, one more than Mikel Arteta\u2019s. The manager said: \u201cIt gives us hope, I said to the guys: \u2018Enjoy the moment but don\u2019t lose focus right now as we have three or four long weeks left.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rayan Cherki\u2019s brilliant individual 16th-minute opener was cancelled out almost immediately by Kai Havertz\u2019s opportunist charge-down of Gianluigi Donnarumma\u2019s clearance before Erling Haaland secured victory from close range.<\/p>\n

Guardiola said: \u201cThis was the best two teams in England \u2013 a good advertisement worldwide. When I see what I see in my team, what can I say?\u201d<\/p>\n

While Arsenal\u2019s goal difference is 37, City have a chance to improve theirs of 36 in Wednesday\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n

Arsenal\u2019s next match is Saturday\u2019s hosting of Newcastle, before Fulham (home) West Ham (away), Burnley (home) and Crystal Palace (away).<\/p>\n

Rodri may not be available for Burnley after being forced off towards the end. \u201cSome groin problem,\u201d said Guardiola. \u201cWe will make tests later or Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta said Arsenal \u2018will go again, for sure\u2019 after the defeat at Manchester City. Photograph: Catherine Ivill\/AMA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Haaland battled throughout with Gabriel Magalh\u00e3es, the latter fortunate not to be sent off after the break when pushing his head into that of the Norwegian. Haaland said: \u201cIf 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

While \u201cstay humble\u201d was what Haaland said to Arsenal after last season\u2019s draw in the corresponding fixture, his winner arrived when he moved ahead of Gabriel.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was quite happy, I have to be honest. It was a great moment for me and a great win,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s always like this, a lot of fighting with Gabriel. I scored the goal \u2013 I won the battle over him in that decisive moment. It\u2019s for other people to decide if I won the battle overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haaland had high praise for Bernardo Silva when City\u2019s captain cleared an Arsenal attack, preventing the ball reaching Viktor Gy\u00f6keres. \u201cWhen he headed that cross away, I told him: \u2018You were like effing Cannavaro,\u2019\u201d said the striker.<\/p>\n

Arteta was left disappointed. \u201cVery upset with the result, obviously,\u201d said Arsenal\u2019s manager. \u201cWe 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\u2019ve done it. But the reality is in the two boxes was the difference and that\u2019s what decided the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, the players were very disappointed not to get a result. That\u2019s the feeling, immediately you could tell that they were talking about, and they said: \u2018OK, we lost an opportunity today, but we have the biggest one now in the next five games, so let\u2019s do it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cToday if they need to be more convinced, they are now more convinced. They were talking about it in the dressing room. It\u2019s a new league now. They have a game in hand. We have three points of advantage and five games to play. We\u2019re not going to stop and we\u2019re going to go again, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola urged Manchester City not \u201cto lose focus\u201d after Sunday\u2019s 2-1 win over Arsenal at the Etihad…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-540555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}