Don't have much respect for Arsenal off the pitch: Pep Guardiola
Jul 21, 2020
Leeds [UK], July 21 : After suffering a 0-2 loss against Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-final, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has taken a dig at Mikel Arteta's side, saying he does not have much respect for them "off the pitch".
Arsenal had defeated City 2-0 in the semi-finals of the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium and this resulted in City's first domestic cup defeat in more than two-and-a-half-years.
"We didn't play the first half against Arsenal like the second, that was the only regret. We wanted to play 90 minutes like the second half," Goal.com quoted Guardiola as saying.
"But, after we were beaten, we shake hands. The opponents always deserve my respect and credit. And Arsenal, I have all the respect for what they are on the pitch, not much off the pitch but on the pitch, a lot. Congratulations to them and good luck in the final," he added.
Manchester City will be finishing second in the Premier League standings and their final two matches against Watford and Norwich would not be having any impact on their final standing.
The Pep Guardiola side is slated to face Real Madrid in the Champions League round-of-16 match on August 7.
Manchester City is leading Madrid 2-1 from the first leg in Spain.
"Against Madrid, we know we have to do good games, all the cups are one game and we did a good performance but against Arsenal, we were not good enough, that's all. It can happen and you move forward, it's forgotten," Guardiola said.
"The next time we play Arsenal next season we will see what we can do to play better and we are incredibly excited and incredibly optimistic about the game against Madrid for the players that we have," he added.
City will now face Watford in the Premier League later today.
