{"id":144565,"date":"2026-03-21T09:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T09:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/144565\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T09:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T09:39:09","slug":"pep-guardiola-says-arsenal-setting-benchmark-for-manchester-city-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/144565\/","title":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola says Arsenal setting benchmark for Manchester City this season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Gunners are in contention for a quadruple having been the Premier League\u2019s strongest team throughout the first three-quarters of the season.<\/p>\n<p>City have the chance to dent those ambitions, starting with Sunday\u2019s meeting at Wembley.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Pep \ud83d\udcac There are learnings in the good and the defeats. We&#8217;ve got to Wembley 22 times in 10 years, it\u2019s an honour and a big challenge. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XUrk9u9jsR\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/XUrk9u9jsR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Manchester City (@ManCity) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ManCity\/status\/2034973962266964352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 20, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey control many aspects of the game and have a strong spirit from winning over many years,\u201d said Guardiola, whose City side are also trying to claw back a nine-point gap to Arsenal in the league.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey can defend deep or press high, and their build-up is fluid with consistent patterns. They are an exceptional team and a big challenge for us, to see our level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>City head to the national stadium after a difficult spell, having exited the Champions League after defeats in both legs against Real Madrid and been held to a frustrating draw by West Ham.<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola hopes playing at Wembley \u2013 a familiar setting \u2013 can inspire them.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2.83834505.jpg\" alt=\"James Trafford will start for Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final\" data-title=\"Real Madrid v Manchester City \u2013 UEFA Champions League \u2013 Round of Sixteen \u2013 First Leg \u2013 Bernabeu\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Bradley Collyer\" data-usage-terms=\"Use subject to restrictions. Editorial use only, no commercial use without prior consent from rights holder.\"  \/>James Trafford will start for Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final (Bradley Collyer\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cToday in modern football we have a lot of games, a lot of competitions mixed during the weeks and everything.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPsychologically you have to be prepared in the good moments and continue, and in the bad moments forget it and always learn from victories and defeats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have been to Wembley 21 times in semi-finals and finals, so being there is an honour and a big challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola has confirmed second-choice goalkeeper James Trafford will start, as he has done in all domestic cup matches this season.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Gunners are in contention for a quadruple having been the Premier League\u2019s strongest team throughout the first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-144565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}