Pep Guardiola has issued a clear warning to his Manchester City players, stressing that their highly anticipated showdown with Arsenal will be meaningless if they fail to overcome Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
With the Premier League title race intensifying following Arsenal’s stumble against Bournemouth, Guardiola underlined the importance of staying focused on the immediate task rather than looking ahead.
Despite favourable results elsewhere boosting City’s position, the Spaniard insisted his squad cannot afford distractions, keeping all attention on Sunday’s crucial trip to west London.
“Talking about Arsenal, if you don’t win at Stamford Bridge – that’s not an easy place to go – maybe we don’t need to make the press conference before Arsenal because it’ll be over,” Guardiola told reporters.
“Everybody knows it. You know it, I know it, the players know it, everybody knows it. England knows it. So, there’s how many games left? You have to win all of them, all. Not one draw, no. Forget about it.”
With eight fixtures left in the campaign, Guardiola maintained that only a flawless run will keep their title hopes alive, dismissing any reliance on past triumphs.
“The aura doesn’t make you feel wins. For most of the players, not now but in recent past, it’s just, ‘OK, we have done it many times, we can do it again’,” Guardiola explained.
“But that doesn’t define a season in the Premier League. The season in the Premier League is 11 months and in the 11 months, there were a lot of games that we were good, but not good enough to win. Because now we are not seventh or eighth in the Premier League, we are second and fighting. It’s not a bad season.”
