Pep Guardiola explained his surprising tactical approach with Manchester City after his side left the Emirates Stadium with a point following Gabriel Martinelli’s 93rd-minute equaliser
Pep Guardiola joked that he was made to “suffer” after parking the bus for the first time in 10 years. Manchester City left the Emirates with a hard-fought draw after Gabriel Martinelli’s injury-time equaliser rescued a point for Arsenal.
But City had just 32.8 per cent share of possession, which is the lowest since Guardiola took charge at the Etihad in 2016, and is in stark contrast from his reputation as playing beautiful football. City boss Guardiola laughed: “I can’t live in this country with another record. I’m so proud of it. You have to give Arsenal a lot of credit.
“One time in 10 years is not bad, eh? I have to prove myself again with a different strategy. So, now I have a transition team. I said I don’t give a f*** about the results, I want to see the spirit back in the training sessions and us enjoying. After that is tactics. We lost it last season and we had to recover.
“This week we have recovered. We have to continue. And from there we will, learn the process, the tactics, our way we feel more comfortable to win games and be proud of ourselves.”
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Guardiola joked he wanted the ball closer to Arsenal keeper David Raya than his own Gianluigi Donnarumma. “I suffered! I want the ball to be closer to Raya, not Gigi,” he said.
“We were so close, we were resilient and I would prefer to play in a certain way but in ten years we play against a lot of teams who defend deep, deep, deep. Sometimes you play against a team who are better in that way and you have to survive in that way, you have to accept it and we did it.”
Arsenal are five points behind leaders Liverpool and Mikel Arteta got out of jail thanks to his substitutes but he refused to accept he got his original selection wrong and dismissed the notion that his midfield of Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino was too negative.
Gunners boss Arteta said: “I leave that to you, but for me it’s a lot of attacking players in that team, yes. I think it’s very clear what we wanted to do. Very well we started the game, I think we completely dominated.”
Martinelli was the superb hero against Athletic Bilbao in midweek and again as he scored late against City. Arteta added: “He’s in a really good moment again after the game he had in Bilbao, in that period of time he probably deserved more but his energy again, his attitude was really good and that’s why he made the impact that he made again for the team.
“Regardless of the result I will say the same thing. I am extremely proud of the team and the players for the way we played and dominated this game against this Man City.”
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