Confidence in City dressing room fragile, says Guardiola as Arsenal hammer another nail in their dodgy title defence.
Confidence has taken a massive hit in the Manchester City dressing room, says a glum-looking Guardiola following their latest loss to Arsenal.
The Gunners emerged deserving victors following a statement 5-1 victory at the Emirates yesterday. Goals from Ødegaard, Partey, Lewis-Skelley, Havertz, and Nwaneri put the gloss over what was a thoroughly dominating performance by Arsenal. Erling Haaland score the only goal for the defending champions.
The 5-1 loss is the first time that Guardiola has lost a game by 4 goals in his long and decorated managerial career. It is also the fourth time this season that Man City have conceded 4 or more goals in a game.
Guardiola pulled no punches after the game, saying that his team’s standards have dropped considerably compared to the previous years.
“The feeling is why we have not done in the last 20, 25 minutes what we had done well for the first 60,” Guardiola said. “Now we have to reflect and talk with the players and hope that it doesn’t happen again.”
When asked about whether the team has become increasingly fragile, Pep further added. “It can be fragile because it happens so many times. But we have a duty to learn and there are always margins to get better. It’s happened all season, we are giving away too many things, we are aware this cannot happen, it happened.”
It was another performance littered with errors for the defending champions. Akanji gave away the ball in his own half that led to the opening goal of the game. John Stones himself was responsible for 2 of the goals that his side conceded. Stefan Ortega gave away the ball straight to Ødegaard. But Kai Havertz scuffed the ensuing chance to save his blushes.
Stones later expressed his apologies for his performance. “It is hard to put into words straight after a game like that. Pride hurts. Sorry to the fans that have travelled to come and watch that,” he said. “How we played in the last 30 minutes was not acceptable. Personally and collectively, it’s not us.
“It is not nice to be involved in that when you know it’s not your team in those situations. We were in the game and it was a swinging point. It swung the wrong way for us. I am angry, upset personally and collectively about how the game finished. There are a lot of different things that I still haven’t figured out as to why it hasn’t clicked. The heart’s there, the passion’s there; everyone’s got the right intention, but confidence is not high at the moment. We all need to stick together.”