Pep Guardiola has revealed his “horrible” tactics left him frustrated before Manchester City responded to earn what could prove a crucial win over Arsenal in the Premier League title race.
City floundered for an hour against Arsenal under Guardiola’s pre-game plan but thrived once he tore it up, scoring twice to beat Arsenal 3-1 and return to the top of the league. It’s a caveated lead – on goal difference having played a game more – but plainly a huge shift of momentum.
Errant and strange tactics from Guardiola are usually the stuff of Champions League games but here he reprised the baffling tactic of the weekend win over Aston Villa by deploying Bernardo Silva at left-back.
Silva played deep in midfield in front of a back three in possession but dropped to the left of City’s back four when Arsenal had the ball. Which, in the first-half, was pretty much all the time.
Actual Left-Backs have been skinned all season by the brilliant Bukayo Saka so it was little surprise to see Silva’s best coping tactic was simply to foul him. Referee Anthony Taylor was stern on time-wasting all night but lenient on Silva, allowing him four Saka fouls before finally booking him. If Arsenal have a regret from their opening 45 minutes, it is that they didn’t get Saka skating at Silva often enough.
Speaking after the game to Prime Video, Guardiola admitted that he got his tactics wrong in the first half but adjusted accordingly in the second to turn the game in City’s favour.
“In the first half they were much better than us, in the second half we were much, much better. At half-time we said that we were not playing, we were just defending because they were so good, and we should be more active. The second half was then excellent,” he explained.
When asked about what frustrated him about the first half performance, Guardiola replied: “My tactics. I decided to try something new and it was horrible. We let them dictate the build up and our shape let them play, and when you let them play with Jorginho and [Granit] Xhaka then they were able to find players in behind – especially [Martin] Odegaard and the runners outside.
“So at half-time we adjusted a little bit, Ruben [Dias] was really good at being closing down Odegaard more aggressively and we controlled more of the ball and played more.
“Erling [Haaland] helped us a lot because we had to play more long balls and he was able to use his power to keep the ball.
“We are built as a team to go as a crazy team. When you wait, float a little bit, the opponent. That’s not who we are. In the second half we were more aggressive, winning duels. When that happens, we’re a better team.”
Thanks to their impressive second half performance, City are now top of the Premier League table – ahead of Arsenal on goal difference.
