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Manchester City Owner pep guardiola Says it’s too early to be worried about stalking armory on top of Premier League,
City lost 1-0 Aston Villa On Sunday the Gunners moved six points clear at the top of the table after beating Crystal Palace by the same scoreline.
Guardiola’s side have a history of toppling Arsenal in the title race, having memorably ousted them in the 2023-24 season, and are set to do so again if they want to get their hands on the trophy.
But city bosses are not too worried right now.
“Arsenal have been strong for many years, this time the concern is how we can improve, get better, better, better and get closer,” he said after a third consecutive defeat at Villa Park.
“In my experience it (the season) is so long. So long. That’s my experience. There’s a lot of teams out there.
“I was worried before the international break (September) when we were 14th in the table.
“If they win all their games and win the Premier League, congratulate them, that’s all we can do.
“But I have to feel that the team is alive, the team is good. I don’t know how many teams can come here and play the way we played, with courage, authority and opportunities.
“We have to be steady with it. And after that, deal with the games better.”
“But I don’t spend October and November thinking ‘Oh, what if we don’t win the Premier League’, so now it’s game by game.
Villa celebrated Unai Emery’s three-year anniversary in style as Matty Cash’s first-half header was enough to secure them a fourth consecutive Premier League win.
City were excellently pressed by a perfect Villa gameplan and Erling Haaland was prevented from scoring for only the second time in all competitions this season, ending a 12-game spree for club and country.
The Norwegian thought he had equalized at the end but it was ruled offside after hitting the post.
Guardiola said: “I didn’t talk to him. He got a knock on the post, well, I didn’t talk to him.”
“We have scored a lot of goals this season, definitely Erling. We have to take a step forward but today was difficult because they defended very well.
“We were there, we were close. In the games we won, we weren’t as productive.
Such a run of results against Guardiola’s side did not seem possible for Villa until Emery arrived at Villa Park in October 2022 and changed their fortunes.
And after a slow start to the campaign, they look to challenge at the top of the Premier League again.
“We started the season very poorly and we had doubts, we weren’t feeling good or confident in different situations,” Emery said.
“And especially this week against Tottenham and Manchester City and the way they perform and the commitment they put into following the gameplan, it’s…fantastic.
“Through the quality of the players, we can feel comfortable and confident and we can win matches like we did today.
“The way we performed today is giving us confidence and positive energy.
“We are increasingly feeling our fort here. We have to get as high a level as possible. There is still work to do.”