The Back Pages Tonight team discuss whether Pep Guardiola is playing mind games with his comment that Manchester City must be ‘almost perfect’ to overhaul Arsenal to win the Premier League.
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola won’t tell Erling Haaland to calm down
Pep Guardiola said he won’t tell Erling Haaland to calm down on the pitch despite his battle with Everton defender Ben Godfrey on Saturday.
Haaland at times appeared riled by Godfrey during the 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium and was booked in the first half for a heavy challenge on Vitalii Mykolenko.
But Guardiola insisted he wants Haaland to continue to be aggressive, particularly ahead of Thursday’s trip to Chelsea.
“I like it, the extra limit,” Guardiola told a news conference on Wednesday. “Not just him, everyone. His behaviours, you always have to use [your head]. But play with this passion. That is necessary. I prefer that than to be flat. Strikers have to handle tough, tough central defenders.
“It’s necessary. [Against Chelsea] he’ll have a battle with [Kalidou] Koulibaly and Thiago Silva. Always it’s a big challenge and that’s why the Premier League is so special.”
Haaland has already scored 21 goals in the league, and 27 in all competitions in just 21 games. But having only arrived in England from Borussia Dortmund in the summer, Guardiola said the 22-year-old is still learning about the physicality of the Premier League.
“I’ve said many times, a lot of things can improve,” Guardiola added. “As much as he scores goals, it’s OK but he still has a margin to improve many things. Of course, he’s young and he will be better in the future.”
After Arsenal’s draw with Newcastle on Tuesday, City can close the gap at the top to five points if they win at Stamford Bridge. Manchester United have also moved within touching distance after four straight wins, but speaking on Wednesday, Guardiola said he did not agree that all the pressure and expectation should be on his team.
“The advantage of Arsenal and Manchester United right now is nobody has to win the Premier League for 20 points ahead in November like Man City has to, and this is sometimes a big problem,” he said. “With this Arsenal winning all their games and you are eight points behind, it can happen. But at the same time, I see the way we played the last games, and the feeling is good.
“What I want to see is us still fight, don’t give up. Not now, until the last chance, until the last drop of water we can fight to win the Premier League and the moment we are not able to win the Premier League we have to be ready to compete next season. This is when teams are really good.”
Barcelona need extra time to beat third-tier Intercity in Copa del Rey
Former Barcelona junior Oriol Soldevila scored a hat trick against his old club but still ended on the losing side as third tier InterCity took the LaLiga giants to extra time before losing 4-3 in a dramatic Copa del Rey tie on Wednesday.
InterCity, promoted to the third division last season, came from behind three times to force extra time after a 3-3 draw at the end of 90 minutes, but were then knocked out when substitute Ansu Fati netted a 103rd-minute winner in Alicante to put Barca in the round of 16.
Ronald Araujo, Ousmane Dembele and Raphinha were Barcelona’s other scorers while the 21-year-old Soldevila netted his three goals in a 25-minute second-half spell including a dramatic third in the 86th minute to take the tie to extra time.
“We can’t be happy but these things can happen in the Copa,” Barca manager Xavi Hernandez said after the match. “Seven top flight teams have been knocked out. We did not kill the game off when we were in front. We could have made it 0-2, 2-4, but we made things difficult for ourselves. We were not good enough in both boxes.
“It’s the same feeling we had after the Espanyol game [on Saturday]. That was a warning and this is another one.”
Soldevila spent two years at the Barcelona academy before moving to England for two seasons at Birmingham City, where he failed to break through into the first team.
“The Copa is like this, we know it, it’s not easy,” Araújo said. “It’s important that we learn from it and correct our mistakes.”
The game was played not long after Spain’s administrative court for sports upheld a three-game suspension for Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski in the Spanish league, taking him out of the league match against Atletico Madrid on Sunday. He had not been in the squad for the Copa match against Intercity.
The suspension had been lifted by a court of disputes after an appeal by Barcelona. The Poland striker had been allowed to play in last weekend’s 1-1 league draw against Espanyol, which later challenged the result of the derby saying it was harmed by the unexpected decision by the Madrid court to temporarily lift the suspension.
Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia and Real Betis had not played until this round because they are part of the Spanish Super Cup that will begin next week.
Source: espn.com
