Guardiola dismisses ‘stupid things’ said about City celebrations after beating Arsenal

Pep Guardiola has hit out at criticism of Manchester City’s celebrations following Sunday’s victory over Arsenal, describing such comments as “stupid things”.

At the final whistle of the 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium, one that took City to within three points of the Premier League leaders with a game in hand, Gianluigi Donnarumma jumped into the crowd behind his goal while many of City’s others players also celebrated in emphatic fashion.

Among those to question this were Wayne Rooney and Danny Murphy in their capacity as pundits on Sunday night’s Match of the Day. Rooney described the celebrations as being “a bit over the top” while Murphy said: “If you are an Arsenal player, you are thinking: ‘Hold on, we’re still leading.’ It was a heavy celebration, I was surprised with that.”

“People can say whatever stupid things they want to say,” Guardiola said when looking ahead to City’s trip to Burnley on Wednesday night. “They celebrated because they know the value of the opponent. They knew if we didn’t win it would be ‘bye-bye [to the title race]’. They won and still we are there. How can they not celebrate it? As much as you respect the opponent and the fans of the opponent, celebrate however you want.

“Of course we are not going to celebrate in the middle of the week if we win 3-0 or 4-0 and the opponent is different. Everybody knew that game, it was a final. Especially for us. Maybe not for them but for us it was a final and of course you have to celebrate it.”

If City win at Turf Moor they will move level with Arsenal on 70 points and also, at the very least, level on +37 goal difference. City have scored 65 goals in 32 games, conceding 29, while Arsenal have scored 63 goals in 33 games, conceding 26. If the two teams finish the season with the same number of points, then the one with the superior goal difference will finish top. “It can happen but you cannot be distracted,” said Guardiola. “If [we chase this], we’ll be unbalanced and when unbalanced, we are going to concede a lot of goals.”

Rodri is set to miss the trip to Burnley, and possibly Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Southampton, because of the groin injury the midfielder sustained against Arsenal. “We will see for the next games,” Guardiola said about when Rodri might be able to return. “Maybe Southampton or maybe in 12 days [against Everton].