Why Guardiola thought it ‘would not be possible’ for Man City to challenge Liverpool & Arsenal

Pep Guardiola has praised the mental resilience and the willpower of his Manchester City players, as he readies his troops for a challenging conclusion to the Premier League season.

After a 12-day gap in league action, City face six games in the next 25 days that will determine whether they can make history and become the first side to record four consecutive top-flight titles. It begins with a trip to Brighton & Hove Albion on Thursday, a game that feels like a must-win given Liverpool and Arsenal’s results since City last played in the league.

Guardiola’s side are now four points off top spot and have an inferior goal difference, albeit they have two matches in hand. The task facing City is made even more difficult given the players are both mentally and physically exhausted, according to their manager.

The Catalan labelled the fixture scheduling as ‘unacceptable’ in the wake of the FA Cup semi-final win over Chelsea at the weekend, a game that came just three days after the gruelling Champions League exit to Real Madrid on penalties.

This truly has been a marathon campaign for City who played in the Community Shield, Uefa Super Cup, the Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia and have gone deep in both the FA Cup and Champions League. All that, coming on the back of last season’s exhausting treble triumph, is what fuelled Guardiola’s sense of injustice at the weekend and his concerns for player welfare.

Yet, as we enter the final month of the season, City still stand a chance of collecting a league and cup double. Guardiola claims that is mainly due to the mindset and characteristics of a team that even he felt would suffer from burnout at some point.

“We played a lot of games,” he reflected ahead of the Brighton encounter. “Madrid was really intense for many things, we were out of the Champions League having done really well and after two or three days we were tired here.

“Not just in the legs, complaining more they were tired here [pointing to head]. These guys have three weeks off, one month, not much rest to recover. People sitting in chairs say, ‘Ah, I complain’. But I defend my players, I know what I’m talking about, much much better than the people outside.

“I know what I’m talking about having seen my players for many years doing that. Human beings do not have no limits; science says you need a certain time to recover many things, not just physically, mentally as well. 

“For many many years we don’t give them that but, despite that, still we are there. That’s why I say I’m really impressed but all the time I’m thinking ‘They will fall down’. This time [I thought] it would not be possible and still they make it possible. That’s why when I reflect on my period here I will always admire these type of players for many years still finding a way to still be in. And this is unbelievable.”

Sceptics may scoff, but even being in this position, at this stage of the season, is an achievement for Guardiola. Over many years the ex-Barcelona boss has referenced how his first aim every campaign is to qualify for the Champions League.

Consistently getting to the latter stages of the competition - and also winning domestic silverware - have, to a certain extent, become par for the course at the Etihad. But City’s level of dominance should never be underestimated, claimed Guardiola.

“For many years we’ve been in the semi-finals and finals - that means consistency of the team, but we are used to it in the last years. You have to deal with that and we have.

“The determination has been there for every season, when we won the mythical battles, eternal battles against Liverpool, that they are able to make 97 points and they still didn’t win the Premier League, winning 13 or 14 games, knowing if we lose or draw we will not be champions,” he continued.

“It’s once again like that this season, but we have done it in the past against Liverpool and Arsenal. People talk about the treble last season, but I don’t know how many semi-finals in a row we have done - maybe four or five. 

“That defines this club, these players, four Carabao Cups in a row, last stages of Champions League, when we broke that situation and the way we competed in this competition. We didn’t lose one game in the Champions League this season. Even with the problems we have, that every club has, we are still there.”

For the next few weeks, the title race will dominate the agenda, and Guardiola still feels his side will need to take maximum points from the final six games if they are to once again secure top spot.

“It is so tight, you can see how strong the opponents are, as we saw with Arsenal [against Chelsea], so I can’t think past Brighton. They have been occupying my mind.

“Yeah, absolutely [we need to be perfect]. They [Liverpool and Arsenal] have given us a chance by losing their games [against Crystal Palace and Aston Villa] but we knew what we had to do two weeks ago - win the games to have a chance in our hands to take the title. Nothing has changed from what we should do before.”