Pep Guardiola blasted his own “fragile” Manchester City players, claiming that “they have a duty and they didn’t do it” in their 5-1 defeat away to Arsenal.
He could not hide his frustrations, especially regarding the closing stages of the match, as the Gunners dominated and pulled away after goals from Martin Odegaard, Thomas Partey, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Kai Havertz and Ethan Nwaneri.
When asked about the fragility of his squad due to numerous setbacks and injuries throughout a disjointed campaign, the head coach hit back by saying: “They can be fragile, it happened many times, but they have a duty and they didn’t do it.”
Up until the 62nd minute, when Lewis-Skelly curled an effort in and taunted Haaland with his celebration, Guardiola was pleased with his side’s performance. But that soon changed.
“I only regret the last 25 minutes,” he told the BBC. “We forgot to do what we should do, what we have done for 65, 70 minutes. Of course it’s a difficult game starting in this stadium, against that team in the first minutes, it’s happened many times this season.
“But after 10, 15 minutes I think we took the game and played really, really, really, really good and we are in it after 1-1 and good momentum we pass to make the transition with Omar [Marmoush] and a deflection and the third goal.
“But after that, we then continued to do what you have to do in terms defensively and [be a] little bit more patient. and when you’re playing that way they can run and of course at 3-1 they are comfortable, its more difficult. I regret the last 15, 20 minutes, the rest was a really good game for our side. It’s difficult to understand when you see the result but this is my feeling.
“It’s happened all season, we are giving away too many things, we are aware this cannot happen, it happened. But we reacted really well and we played with personality and we defended so good and then with the ball we were a threat but unfortunately after the second happened, again many times we had the momentum. For the deflection and in other situations we conceded the goals.
“You have to overcome [it], you cannot lose the control, it’s 90, 95 minutes. You cannot finish in the way we played, we could’ve scored three more but the team has to be stable it doesn’t matter what happened.”
Guardiola agreed with John Stones’ assessment that the final third of the match was “unacceptable” after the England centre-back issued a public apology to their travelling fans.
“It is difficult,” Stones told Sky Sports. “I think all of us don’t take losing well. It is hard to put into words straight after a game like that. Pride hurts. Sorry to the fans that have traveled to come and watch that. 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. Credit to Arsenal, this is not an easy place to come to. For 65 minutes, we played some great football at times.
“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.”