Guardiola: Premier League title will not be decided against Arsenal

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has insisted the Premier League title will not be decided by the outcome of their trip to the Emirates on Sunday.

The Cityzens are finally picking up form following a rocky start to the campaign that saw them drop points to Tottenham and Brighton.

Guardiola’s men travel to Arsenal, who have lost one of their four opening clashes and are hunting down an elusive title they have not lifted since 2004.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Guardiola said: “It’s the fifth game. It will be the fifth game. Come on.

“When I arrived here, Brian Kidd told me Sir Alex Ferguson said that in the Premier League, you have to stay close to the top four up to Boxing Day. And after that you can think about it.

“Last season, after Boxing Day, we were in another country. So that’s why, let’s go today and we’ll see what happens. There are many games.

“For experience, in the six Premier League wins, I think four or five, we were behind Liverpool or Arsenal in December, January. And at the end, we won it.

“See the team going up. That is all my concern right now. See the team make a step forward every day. We’re not going to win the Premier League on Sunday. We’re not going to lose the Premier League on Sunday.

“So we see the team, that we are better than last season there, and we are better and continue a little bit, many good things that we have done in these two games, and continue with that.”

Arsenal a formidable foe

Guardiola and Arteta have enjoyed plenty of battles since the latter left his tutor’s side to lead the Gunners, but this match might have more significance than most.

City had a huge drop off in quality last term, but still picked up results against the Gunners.

Arteta has often been accused of playing too safe against his title rivals, and with City back in the picture this season, he will be keen to prove himself in front of his old mentor and really lay down Arsenal’s title credentials.

And Guardiola has nothing but respect for his former student.

He added: “The game last season we started like many times last season and a thousand million goals, and after we were a lot of the time pretty good, considering how it was last season, and the last 15-20 minutes were a disaster.

“We forgot to do what we had do and after that it was easy for Arsenal. Hopefully this season we can make a little few more challenges because Mikel Arteta is an extraordinary manager and they increase the squad for this four or five transfer windows.

“So it is an unbelievable squad and an unbelievable team, it is one of the toughest opponents you can find now in Europe and we try to compete. I want to compete to be a better team than we were last season, especially in the last 20-25 minutes.”