‘If you grow up, always you will be there’ – Guardiola on Manchester City’s improvement this season and the pressure of competing with Arsenal

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Guardiola is no stranger to a title race, having won six Premier League trophies with City.

Asked about the pressure of being involved, he says the focus is firmly on the performances and improving on the pitch.

“We need that pressure to compete good against that team,” he said.

“They have to know that if we don’t win, it’s over. They know it, we talk about that.

“I can speak in the last year, what happened in the Premier League, when we were six, seven, eight years ago, every game we knew if we don’t win, we don’t win the Premier League. So we play with that. But at the end, playing that game, you have to do something, no?

“What is the pressure? What does it mean if we don’t win? We have to do, we have to move our legs, no? We have to think about it, what’s happened. We have to use our brain during the moment, and this is what we have to do.

“So, of course, we have pressure. It’s always the same with the final of the Carabao Cup or FA Cup, against Southampton in one week’s time.

“So if we don’t win, we are out. But we have to do something. What do we have to do?

“This is why we work here, almost every day, to try to let them feel that doing that, how we attack in the final third, when we play against a low block, the defenders sit so, so deep, what do you have to do to avoid the transition? What do you have to do in different aspects, that every different rivals tell you, this is the only thing I’m concerned about.

“I don’t want to be distracted. So if we lose, I will shake hands with Mikel, and I will pray they lose the next five games to be champions, but I think it’s not going to happen. Try to win our game on Sunday.”

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