Pep Guardiola said that he will watch Arsenal vs Liverpool as he waits to see whether his Manchester City side will end the Premier League weekend at the top of the table.
Liverpool has topped the table for much of the season, but City leapfrogged the Reds on Saturday with a 1-0 victory over Southampton at the Etihad Stadium courtesy of Erling Haaland’s early strike.
Arne Slot’s side plays its game in hand on Sunday, but the test that lies ahead could not be much trickier, given Mikel Arteta’s side has established itself as the second best team in England over the last two seasons.
Guardiola was asked if he will watch the clash between City’s two closest title rivals, and he was also asked whether it matters that his side has moved to the top at such an early stage in the season.
“I will watch it,” Guardiola said of the Arsenal vs Liverpool match, before moving on to discuss his side’s situation. “I prefer to be at the top of the table than not be at the top but it’s not a problem. Look at what happened today, Villa dropped points, Brighton dropped points, because it’s so difficult. We won against Wolves (last weekend) in the 95th minute. Today we had chances, so we could have scored two, three, four — the xG (expected goals) is much much higher (than 1)— but I have to admit that today was such a demanding game for us. A really, really demanding game.”
Guardiola acknowledged that his side’s recent narrow victories over Southampton and Wolves show just how tough it is to win matches in the Premier League.
“Last two games, Wolves and Southampton, are at the bottom of the league and, if this is the level, that shows how tough this Premier League is,” Guardiola said. “They played really good. They didn’t create many chances but it was an incredible effort to get the ball from us. We created chances that we couldn’t convert but the result is good.”
The strength in depth in the Premier League is something that Liverpool boss Arne Slot knows all abou. Slot has presided over a record-breaking start to the season for Liverpool, with the Reds winning seven of their eight matches in the Premier League, but not all of those wins have been plain sailing.
Liverpool has actually been handed two of its toughest tests of the season by teams towards the bottom of the league. The Reds only narrowly beat Wolves themselves at the end of September, requiring a Mohamed Salah penalty to win 2-1 at Molineux, before again beating 18th-placed Crystal Palace by a one-goal margin one week later.
