Pep Guardiola said Manchester City’s 3-1 win over Leicester was absolutely vital in the pursuit of Arsenal, with the champions’ hosting of the leaders a week on Wednesday like a cup final in their defence of the title.
Erling Haaland scored twice, to make it 47 goals for the season, and John Stones once, with Kelechi Iheanacho’s late strike immaterial to the result.
Before Arsenal’s trip to West Ham on Sunday, City have a superior goal difference of seven so know if this remains intact and they win all of their last eight games a third consecutive championship is theirs. Guardiola was asked if beating relegation-threatened Leicester was important in keeping the pressure on Mikel Arteta’s side.
“Absolutely – it is win, win and win,” said the manager of what was required. “They have made an incredible run and I don’t think they will drop many points, so it is important to be in there and arrive in the final in the next PL game against them.”
With City in FA Cup action next weekend, Arsenal could be nine points ahead when they arrive at the Etihad Stadium. Guardiola said: “It is a final to play more finals because if you lose this game, it will be almost over. We spoke a month ago that hopefully we can arrive having the chance to be there. We want this opportunity knowing how difficult it will be.”
The manager was pleased with the display against Leicester, particularly as it followed Tuesday’s 3-0 Champions League quarter-final first leg victory over Bayern Munich, Guardiola making five second-half substitutions with a view to Wednesday’s return in Germany.
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“It was a really good game after the Champions League as well, against a team that is fighting and in a difficult position for them. In the end when you make a lot of substitutions you drop a little bit. I had to avoid injuries. Normally when you make changes it happens – [we got the] three points and on to the next one.”
This was Dean Smith’s first match in charge of Leicester. His team are two points from the last safe spot with 21 left to compete for. “I’m obviously disappointed but a two-goal deficit to the best team in the world isn’t the end of the world,” he said. “Our season won’t be defined here, we have a run of games where we have to win.
“I’m not setting any points targets, we just have to win each game. There’s games coming up which are winnable, this season won’t be defined by Manchester City. I thought our second-half performance was better. There was a bit of us being a little bit more committed and a bit of them putting the brakes on as well.”
