Pep Guardiola admitted he was not happy to ask Manchester City to play so defensively as Gabriel Martinelli’s stoppage-time equaliser rescued a 1-1 draw for Arsenal on Sunday.
Guardiola resorted to an unusually conservative second-half game-plan at the Emirates Stadium in a bid to hold on after Erling Haaland’s ninth-minute opener.
However, the City manager’s decision to substitute Norway striker Haaland and withdraw England forward Phil Foden in a switch to a back five ultimately backfired.
Arsenal were able to monopolise possession with City sitting so deep and Martinelli broke the offside trap with a well-timed run onto Eberechi Eze’s pass before lofting a composed finish over Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Significantly, City had just 32.8 per cent of possession, which was the lowest figure any Guardiola team has ever recorded in a Premier League match.
“I can’t believe I have another record in this country,” he joked. “I give a lot of credit to Arsenal, especially when defending with five. We are not built for that but sometimes we have to accept it.
Arsenal were better so sometimes it can happen. One time in 10 years is not bad, right? I have to prove myself again with this strategy. Now I am on a transition team!”
Resorting to the kind of gameplan once the sole preserve of his old enemy Jose Mourinho, Guardiola’s last-gasp change of tack exposed the desperation to cling onto what would have been a priceless victory after a wobbly start to the season.
Instead, the Spaniard’s abandonment of his purist principles was in vain and City are now languishing in ninth place — already eight points behind leaders Liverpool.
Clearly a work in progress after Guardiola’s heavy spending on younger players in the last two transfer windows, City’s inexperience has shown in a run of just two wins in their first five league matches.
‘I don’t like it’
“A tough week it was so demanding for us to come here, against one of the best teams in Europe, it was difficult to play the way we wanted to,” Guardiola said.
“I would prefer to play another way but when we play so many games, you can defend deep and take the result. Honestly, it is because the opponent was better. We have to survive in that way and we did.”
Adamant that he would accept the criticism of his conservative approach, Guardiola added: “I am open for that. I am sitting here for that. “Three days ago against the best team in Italy we played differently against Napoli.
“I suffer. I don’t like it. But if the opponent is doing good things, we have to accept it and improve,” he said.
Despite the pain of Martinelli’s equaliser, Guardiola also drew optimism from a performance from City that had been too often absent during their wretched sequence last season.
“I said this season, I don’t care about the results. I want to see the spirit back. We lost it last season and we have to recover it. We did that this week,” he added.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta refused to be drawn into the Guardiola debate, presumably out of respect for the man he considers a friend and mentor after working as his City assistant.
“Everybody tries to do his best to get a result. It’s fine,” Arteta said. “I’m extremely proud of the players and very disappointed with the result.
“After City scored the goal, after doing absolutely nothing before that, we started to dominate and the second half was a continuation of that.”
Arteta, whose team are five points behind Liverpool in second, was not immune to criticism as his decision to again start with Declan Rice, Mikel Merino and Martin Zubimendi in midfield puzzled many.
“For me we had a lot of attacking players in that team. Nobody asked me about the midfield three in Bilbao,” Arteta said in reference to the Gunners 2-0 Champions League win in the Basque Country midweek.
“It was the same midfield. I believe it was the best for the team. They were the best ones to start the game.”