Pep Guardiola believes Arsenal has a significant edge in the Premier League championship battle and has downplayed the importance of Manchester City's experience in the final stretch.
After a 3-0 victory against Fulham on Sunday, the Gunners reclaimed a five-point lead atop the standings over City, who had defeated Crystal Palace 1-0 the day before on the strength of a late penalty from Erling Haaland.
Compared to their previous spectacular triumphs against Aston Villa and Bournemouth, which both need stoppage-time goals, Arsenal's victory was a little more easy.
Arsenal has an edge over other teams, in Guardiola's opinion, because of their determination to compete until the very end.
‘Still Arsenal are the favourites because they are up front,’ said Guardiola.
‘They make an incredible first leg [of the season], they drop a little bit then come back again.
‘They have many years without winning the Premier League and they give you this extra that helps you win games in 93rd minute, 98th minute, that’s something they have which we don’t have because we won back-to-back two times.
‘That’s why when the people say what about your opinion of the team and the season, after two times back-to-back, one team gets 50 points in the first leg, still we are there.
‘Normally in this country when you win something a lot and you don’t start the season well or someone is better, you drop or you are not consistent.
‘But still we are there. This is the best trophy and compliment we can have. I don’t know what will happen at the end of the season but they know we want to be there and we will fight to be there and this is great.’
City will be back in action this mid week in the UEFA Champions League. The Premier League side will face RB Leipzig in the second leg encounter in Wednesday night.
Pep Guardiola is still in search of the UEFA Champions League trophy with Manchester City, with their best performance of reaching the final in 2021 only to lose to Chelsea.
He continued: ‘If experience works the team who wins the previous season will win every single season. Experience in sport is a new challenge. Liverpool lost against Bournemouth, a few months ago it was 9-0.
‘Everything is so difficult, what they have done in the past is the past, we have to do it again because football is unpredictable. Many things happen in football that people take for granted.
‘The reality is still we are there, [on Saturday] the way we behave in this typical winter game, at Selhurst Park, in the cold, it’s difficult, the composure we play, the few, few chances we concede and the desire to win the game and want to be close to Arsenal, that is the best for my team.’
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