Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola highlighted “fatigue”, injuries and Arsenal’s quality as reasons for his tactics as his side took an unusually defensive approach in Sunday’s 1-1 draw at the Emirates.
City conceded a 93rd-minute equaliser in the capital after Eberechi Eze’s clipped ball over the top caught out the visitors’ high line before Gabriel Martineli raced clean through to chip over the onrushing Gianluigi Donnarumma.
And while City were impressive in their ability to fend off wave after wave of Arsenal attack – with Erling Haaland having opened the scoring with a superb counter in the ninth minute – the visitors invited plenty of Arsenal pressure and registered just 32.8 per cent possession as they took an unusually defensive approach.
That possession stat is is the lowest figure any Pep Guardiola team have ever recorded in a top-flight match, illustrating the defensive-mindedness of a City team that was unusually poor in possession while being happy to sit back and soak up pressure.
However, Guardiola was happy with the result and performance overall, saying that his side will “take the point”, although “we have to improve”. The Spaniard then went on to blame a mix of factors for the approach, explaining that his side was “incredibly tired”.
“The game against Napoli was so emotional. We had a lot of fatigue with many players. We also have a lot of injuries,” he explained. “We don’t try to be like this [with the defensive approach] but when the opponent is better we defend deeper and counter-attack, but that’s not our intention.
“I would prefer not to do it but you have to at this level. I take a point and in some games we have to adjust. It’s difficult to analyse with all that’s happened this week,” he added.
And Guardiola further praised his side’s “resilience”, adding that it is “so difficult when you’re not effective or high pressing and you’re not effective in build up”.
“I think the result is fair. But in general, Arsenal were better,” he explained, later adding that he didn’t want to put any blame on the early schedule.
“Many things can happen but if you want to bring that our complaint is the schedule – then okay,” he added.
City have had a positive week on paper, beating Manchester United in last week’s derby before winning their opening match of the Champions League campaign 2-0 against Napoli.
However, City remain eight points adrift of league leaders Liverpool, with Guardiola’s men currently in ninth place with seven points from their opening five matches.
City’s next match comes at home to Burnley on 27 September, while Arsenal continue their campaign with a difficult test away to Newcastle the next day.
