Guardiola tells players ‘mentality’ will be vital in quest for silverware
City manager wants to build momentum for season’s climax Cup semi-final defeat in 2017 by Arsenal acts as a warning
Plenty of Pep Guardiola’s conversations in the three weeks since Manchester City secured their place in the FA Cup semi-finals have been framed by reference to today’s game with Arsenal and next month’s Champions League clash against Real Madrid.
As he articulated yesterday, Guardiola has been determined to ensure City have a healthy momentum going into both games, a “good feeling and mood”.
But, while all roads may ultimately point to Madrid and the pursuit of Champions League glory, anyone underestimating the importance of Guardiola’s latest trip to Wembley – which is as commonplace these days as a walk to the supermarket for you and me – has not been paying enough attention.
Jose Mourinho is often characterised as the game’s ultimate trophy hunter, a man who will employ any means necessary to get his hands on a cup, but for all Guardiola’s obsession with playing styles and “beautiful football”, the Catalan craves that reassuring glow of silverware in the same way bears do honey, cats warm fires and Mikel Arteta a defence.
The Arsenal manager will certainly know how much defeat by the north London club in their FA
Cup semi-final in April 2017, in the final weeks of Guardiola’s first season in England, angered the Catalan. Guardiola’s No 2 at the time, Arteta was on the City bench that day as the pre-match favourites lost 2-1.
The Guardiola revolution was still in its infancy then, though, which the man himself was keen to stress yesterday as he interjected before his inquisitor could finish asking whether that experience was instructive.
“It’s changed a lot since then,” he said. “We lost that day, it was a tight game but this period … it was just the beginning [of my reign] and we were still getting to know each other.”
The inference was clear. City have gone from strength to strength since then, while Arsenal have not. So if his players play to anything approaching their potential, they should win.
But, guarding against complacency, Guardiola talked up Arteta’s work at Arsenal and made a point of arguing that he had invariably found semi-finals much tougher than actual finals, even if his record is hardly shoddy. Still, it might offer Arteta a smidgen of hope as he attempts to erase from his players’ minds all those haunting memories of Kevin De Bruyne giving the team the runaround in games that have tended to finish 3-0 in City’s favour in recent seasons. Guardiola has won 16 of his 17 finals.
Ridiculous, isn’t it? Yet seven of his 21 semi-finals ended in defeat, including that one against Arsenal, so maybe there is something there for Arteta, even if his side are going to have to defend much better than they did in their first game back after the restart at the Etihad last month, when David Luiz had one of his more eccentric nights.
“I struggle a lot in my career in the semi-finals,” Guardiola said. “It was easier [in] the finals. I handled them much, much better. I’ve lost many more semis than finals I’ve played. It’s more difficult.” “Struggle” is a relative concept. Five of those semi-final defeats were in the Champions League. Only two came in domestic competition, the other being a penalty shoot-out defeat by Borussia Dortmund in the German Cup in April 2015, a game in which Arsenal striker Pierre-emerick Aubameyang scored for Dortmund. Perhaps history will repeat itself but Arsenal will have to have a good day, and City a bad one. Claudio Bravo will not be in goal for City, either. The erratic Chilean – usually favoured in domestic cup matches – has a muscular problem so regular No1 Ederson will start instead. Aymeric Laporte will also be back to beef up the defence after a suspect showing from John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi in Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Bournemouth, a game Guardiola admitted his side were fortunate not to lose. So, too, will De Bruyne, rested in midweek but so often Arsenal’s tormentor-in-chief and doubtless Arteta’s principle worry. “These games are about the mentality, not the tactics,” Guardiola said. “We are ready to play another final and it will be a good test to see if we are ready to play against Madrid.”
The ultimate trophy hunter? If City reach the final and beat either Manchester United or Chelsea, they will have won nine of the past 11 domestic trophies on offer under Guardiola, including Community Shields, which he most definitely counts.
The ease with which they surrendered the title to Liverpool this term was an acute disappointment that, by Guardiola’s own admission, did not impress his chairman, Khaldoon al-mubarak. But it will feel a lot less painful should they add the Champions League to a bulging trophy cabinet next month.
In that respect, beating Arsenal is as much about the march to hoovering up more domestic silverware as it is towards ensuring momentum does not slip ahead of the visit of Real for the second leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie at the Etihad on Aug 7.
‘We are ready to play another final and it will be a good test to see if we are ready to play