Soccer | Premier League
Pep Guardiola urges Arsenal fans to be patient with Mikel Arteta
After Manchester City beat Arsenal 5-0, Pep Guardiola defends Mikel Arteta, saying he will recover and that the odds were stacked against him.
With this 5-0 loss to Manchester City, the Gunners have dropped to the bottom of the Premier League table. Meanwhile, City moved up to the top of the table after an impressive victory. Ilkay Gundogan and Ferran Torres both scored within 12 minutes. To make matters worse for Arsenal, Granit Xhaka was given a straight red card for a two-footed challenge on Joao Cancelo. Gabriel Jesus and Rodri both scored and finally Torres polished off the defeat with his brace at the death.
Guardiola reassures Arsenal fans about Arteta
This is bad news for Mikel Arteta, who now finds his team at the bottom of the division. Guardiola, however, came straight to his defense. Arteta was Guardiola’s former assistant and is a fellow Spaniard as well, but Guardiola says he is speaking not as a friend, but rather as a professional when he says he’s confident that Arteta will turn things around. “He helped us. He helped me a lot to achieve what we achieved together. What we are now, Man City, as a team, is thanks to him for the job he has done.”
Guardiola also makes sure to remind that Arteta was working with a team full of injured players and was not able to compete as the team he was expecting. “The squad and the team that he played today, it’s not the team that he dreamed of because he has six, seven, eight players injured, important, really important, players.” Despite the challenges so far, Guardiola reassures that Arteta will be back on track in no time.