{"id":15969,"date":"2025-10-26T20:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T20:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/15969\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T20:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T20:46:09","slug":"pep-guardiola-not-worried-that-manchester-city-have-to-chase-down-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/15969\/","title":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola not worried that Manchester City have to chase down Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"

City slipped to a 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa on Sunday as the Gunners beat Crystal Palace by the same scoreline to move six points clear at the top of the table.<\/p>\n

Guardiola\u2019s side have history of chasing down Arsenal in the title race, memorably overhauling them in the 2023-24 season, and look set to have to do it again if they want to get their hands on the trophy.<\/p>\n

\"ManchesterPep Guardiola\u2019s side have work to do in the title race (Nick Potts\/PA)<\/p>\n

But the City boss is not getting too worried just yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cArsenal have been solid for many years, this time the concern is how we can improve, better, better, better and to be close,\u201d he said after a third successive loss at Villa Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my experience it (the season) is so long. So long. This is my experience. There are many teams there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was worried before the international break (September) when we were 14th in the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they win all their games and win the Premier League, congratulate them, that\u2019s all we can do.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have to feel the team is alive, the team is good. I don\u2019t know how many teams can come here and play the way we played, with the courage, possession and chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be stable with that. And after that, to deal with games better.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t live in October and November thinking, \u2018Oh what is going to happen if we don\u2019t win the Premier League\u2019, so it\u2019s game by game now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Villa celebrated Unai Emery\u2019s three-year anniversary in style as Matty Cash\u2019s first-half fizzer gave was enough for them a fourth successive Premier League win.<\/p>\n

City were stifled excellently by a perfect Villa gameplan and Erling Haaland was stopped from scoring for just the second time this season in all competitions, ending a 12-game spree for club and country.<\/p>\n

The Norwegian thought he had levelled at the end but it was ruled offside as he collided with the post.<\/p>\n

\"ManchesterErling Haaland drew a rare blank as this goal was disallowed (Nick Potts\/PA)<\/p>\n

Guardiola added: \u201cI didn\u2019t speak with him. He got a knock into the post, right, I didn\u2019t speak to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have scored a lot of goals this season, Erling of course. We have to make a step up but today was difficult because they defended very well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were there, we were close. In the games we won we were not so productive.<\/p>\n

Such a run of results against Guardiola\u2019s side would not have seemed possible for Villa before Emery arrived at Villa Park in October 2022, transforming their fortunes.<\/p>\n

And after a slow start to the campaign, they again look like challenging at the top end of the Premier League.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started the season pretty poorly and we had doubts, we were not feeling good or confident for different circumstances,\u201d Emery said.<\/p>\n

\"AstonUnai Emery\u2019s side continued their fine record against City (Mike Egerton\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd especially this week against Tottenham away and Manchester City and how they perform and the commitment, following the gameplan, it is\u2026fantastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough the quality of the players, we can feel comfortable and confident and we can win matches like we did today.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow we performed today is giving us confidence and positive energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are feeling progressively our fortress here. We have to get the level as high as possible. There is still work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City slipped to a 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa on Sunday as the Gunners beat Crystal Palace by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-15969","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\/15969","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=15969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}