Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola criticised the team’s scheduling after a 1-1 draw against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. Erling Haaland scored an early ninth-minute goal for the Sky Blues but Gabriel Martinelli equalised in the 93rd minute to help his team share the spoils.
The Spaniard admitted that the Gunners were better than his team but complained about the side’s hectic scheduling. The Cityzens had registered a 2-0 win against Napoli in the UEFA Champions League match on Friday at the Etihad Stadium and then had to travel to London.
“Hats off to the team, their resilience,” Guardiola said on Sky Sports, after seeing Erling Haaland’s early opener cancelled out by Gabriel Martinelli’s stoppage-time strike.
“To score is so difficult when you’re not effective at high pressing, you’re not effective in the build-up.
“The mindset has to be strong but we have a lot of fatigue with the same players, we have you know how many injured.”
Asked why he felt his team were not effective, he said: “[Arsenal] were better and we were incredibly tired. Sometimes people don’t realise, the game against Napoli in the Champions League was so emotional, after that a recovery day and the day after you have to [travel] four, five hours [to London].”
When asked further about his feelings regarding the schedule, he said: “But if you want to bring up the fact that now I’m complaining for the schedule, OK. OK, I’m complaining for the schedule! Are you satisfied? OK…!”
On the other hand, Manchester United legend Roy Keane, speaking as a pundit on Sky Sports, was not impressed by Guardiola’s criticism regarding the schedule as the season had started in August.
He said, “If you’re talking about fatigue and schedules, we’re in September and they’re on the back of two home matches.
“The United game they were fairly comfortable, Napoli had a man sent off after 20 minutes. They’ve not travelled from Russia or Poland when you’ve had a tough away game. We all know the challenges of being a footballer is being robust and playing two or three games a week.
“We look at their players on the bench, I’m sure there must be other managers in the Premier League looking at Pep thinking, ‘Pep, if you think you’ve got problems with schedules and the strength in depth, my goodness.’ I didn’t like that angle Pep was coming from.”
Manchester City will next take on Heddersfield in the third round of the EFL Cup on Wednesday.
