Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola took a very defensive approach to his side’s Premier League game against Arsenal on Sunday, but Gabriel Martinelli’s late goal undermined everything
Pep Guardiola’s unusual tactical approach against Arsenal was shown by an eyebrow-raising statistic. Manchester City drew 1-1 against the Gunners on Sunday afternoon after Erling Haaland’s early goal was cancelled out by Gabriel Martinelli’s injury-time equaliser.
Haaland put City ahead on the counter-attack with a clinical finish which allowed the away side to sit deep. Arsenal struggled to break down the deep-set City defence, even after Mikel Arteta brought on Eberechi Eze and Bukayo Saka at half-time.
Eventually, it took a ball over the top of the defence from Eze to Martinelli to create the 93rd-minute equaliser for the Gunners. It meant that Guardiola’s defensive substitutions, like taking Haaland and Phil Foden off, did not have the desired effect.
The draw left City ninth in the Premier League, with seven points from the opening five games. Guardiola’s remarkable ultra-defensive approach was born out in the post-match statistics from Opta.
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City recorded their lowest-ever average possession under Guardiola in a Premier League game of 32.8 per cent, while their previous low of 36.5 per cent, in March 2023, also came away at Arsenal.
Guardiola admitted that Arsenal were the better side and explained that his approach was partially due to his side being fatigued after playing Napoli in the Champions League on Thursday. The City boss played the same starting XI from the Napoli game, naming the same team for the third straight game for only the third time, having done so previously in September and October 2017 and in August and September 2021.
“It’s difficult to analyse with all that’s happened this week. We play games like United and in the Champions League on Thursday and now today. The teams are like so powerful in all aspects,” Guardiola told Sky Sports.
“The resilience – of course, so difficult when you’re not effective or high pressing and you’re not effective in build up. Always so tough and so difficult to do it. We made some transitions. I think the result is fair. But in general, Arsenal were better.”
“So sometimes people don’t realise motivation, even so emotional. After that recovery day, they also had to wait for five hours.
“But really, you know, you live in London after privilege, but the people who live in the north east, don’t have four or five hours to ride here in London and everything like they fought the last two Premier League games to win it and the Champions League. So tough. We had to be so strong in terms of mentality.”
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