It’s out of our hands - Guardiola
Pep Guardiola admitted the Premier League was Liverpool’s to lose after claiming Manchester City would have needed to “kill someone” to get past a doggedly defensive Arsenal.
A cagey 0-0 draw at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester yesterday allowed Liverpool to open up a two-point gap to Arsenal at the top of the table after the Jurgen Klopp-managed side had beaten Brighton 2-1 at Anfield earlier in the day.
The stalemate left City three points adrift of leaders Liverpool with nine games to play and City manager Guardiola conceded the prospect of an unprecedented fourth consecutive league title was out of their hands.
Asked if Liverpool were now the title favourites, the City manager said: “Yes. Always who is first is favourites. Second is Arsenal and we are third.
“It’s not in our hands. All we can do is think of Aston Villa [on Wednesday]. If you are top of the league – like we’ve been before – you are favourites.”
Bernardo Silva echoed his manager’s sentiments. “A lot can happen,” the City midfielder said.
“Now we don’t depend on ourselves, we depend on Liverpool and Arsenal now because we don’t play against them again, so we need them to drop points as well as do our job and win our own games.”
Guardiola admitted City had trouble penetrating Arsenal’s low block and quipped that they would have needed to do something illegal to find a way past Mikel Arteta’s obdurate side, who became the first team since Southampton in September 2021 to stop City scoring at home in the league.
Asked how you bypass a team that defends low in such large numbers, Guardiola joked: “Kill someone. Play with nine. They defend well and a lot. Surrounding Erling [Haaland]. Be patient and find the pass. They defended well with a lot of people. There are different ways. They did well with the press and then after the block.
“It doesn’t matter how many players you defend with, the main target is not to concede. The low block was really difficult [to play against]. We prefer to win obviously but we take the draw.”
Arteta said the performance was a reflection of how far Arsenal have come.
“No way can you be fully happy [with just a point],” the Arsenal manager said.
“Listen, I think we have made a big step today. We had the experience of playing here last season and we have come across in a different way today.
“We played the game in an exceptional way, and in other parts of the game we could have done much better, especially with the ball in the final third.’’
At Anfield, Liverpool recovered from the shock of going 1-0 down to Danny Welbeck’s goal within two minutes for Brighton to seal a comeback win with goals to Luiz Diaz and Mohamed Salah, who grabbed the winner midway through the second half. – Telegraph Group