Pep Guardiola has warned Arsenal that the Premier League title will not be decided by Manchester City’s recent slip-up at Wolves and has provided a key fitness update on two of his players ahead of Sunday’s clash at the Emirates.
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Last season’s treble winners suffered a shock 2-1 defeat to Gary O’Neil’s side at Molineux on Saturday, making it back-to-back losses after they crashed out of the Carabao Cup to Newcastle United, two results that have left Guardiola ‘hurt’.
City look to get back to winning ways on Wednesday with a trip to RB Leipzig in the Champions League before they travel to Arsenal on Sunday in a showdown between the two biggest favourites to land this season’s top-flight title.
Arsenal went close to lifting their first Premier League trophy since 2004 last term and topped the table for 248 days, the most for a team who failed to win the title in history, while this season they are one point behind City after seven games.
Gary Neville feels Arsenal will come out on top in the title race this time around and will be boosted by City’s slip-up at Wolves, but Guardiola does not see it the same way.
‘We’re not going to win the Premier League at Wolves or lose it,’ Guardiola said on Tuesday. ‘We’ve been behind the [Premier League] leaders many times.
‘We will get back to our principles, learn from the game. I’m more than pleased at what they’ve done so far and you have to move on.’
Guardiola added: ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen this season. What the players have done is unbelievable.
‘We conceded two shots on target [against Wolves] and we lost the game, that’s football.
‘We have to improve, yeah, [but] the base of what we did last season was John Stones, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Jack Grealish and they weren’t there. Sometimes you have to adjust something, it’s normal.
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‘There are some players who know exactly what they have to do because they’ve been here seven years together, the other ones don’t.
‘We are still in the process of making our team better. The Newcastle game hurts, the Wolves game hurts.
‘Now we have to move forward to Leipzig, then away to Arsenal.’
Guardiola has also confirmed that John Stones and Bernardo Silva are set to return for Sunday’s clash against Arsenal.
‘They feel better,’ Guardiola said. ‘Bernardo better than John. Both travelled [to Germany], we will decide tomorrow.
‘I’m really happy they’re back. John has not played one minute this season,Bernardo had an injury and the birth of his beautiful baby daughter but they’re back. It’s good news for us.’
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