Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta (Photo by Kate McShane, Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola today responded to Arsenal’s loss of points in the Premier League title race with their 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa.
Emi Buendia scored a stoppage-time winner for Unai Emery’s side as they handed the Gunners only their second defeat all season.
Meanwhile, Man City responded with a 3-0 home win over Sunderland later in the afternoon, reducing the gap to just two points.
Yet even as City pile the pressure on Arsenal, it seems Guardiola still doesn’t expect Arteta’s side to drop points too often this season, emphasizing that his team needs to be consistent…
Pep Guardiola: “I have the feeling – even though they lost points today – that Arsenal are going to lose few, few, few, few points. If we want to be there, we have to win games, games and games. And the games come from the way you play, not just from a lucky day or a lucky action…”
– City Xtra (@City_Xtra) December 6, 2025
According to City
Manchester City are now just two points behind – should Arsenal be worried?
City have already lost four league matches and are conceding a surprisingly high number of goals – seven more than league leaders Arsenal.
And yet, Arsenal haven’t pulled away far enough to feel comfortable, so north Londoners will be worried if this City team still hasn’t hit their peak.
We’ve seen these two teams battle for the title on several occasions in recent years, and City came out on top in 2022/23 and 2023/24 thanks to superb runs in the second half of both campaigns.
Arsenal fans will have bad memories of those seasons, where just one or two different results could have seen them edge out City for the title.
It reminds us that when you’re going up against a manager like Guardiola and players like Erling Haaland, you simply can’t afford more than a few very occasional mistakes or else you’ll be punished.
