{"id":34396,"date":"2026-05-13T14:26:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34396"},"modified":"2026-05-13T14:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:42:21","slug":"no-added-pressure-on-man-city-due-to-arsenal-win-guardiola","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/no-added-pressure-on-man-city-due-to-arsenal-win-guardiola\/","title":{"rendered":"No added pressure on Man City due to Arsenal win: Guardiola"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Arsenal\u2019s late win over West Ham United on Sunday to go five points clear at the top of the Premier League table did not put any extra pressure on second-placed Manchester City, Pep Guardiola said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Guardiola\u2019s side, who have played a game less, must hope for Arsenal to drop points, as a win over Crystal Palace on Wednesday will still leave them two points behind, with two matches left.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cSame one as two days, three days, four days ago,\u201d Guardiola told reporters on Tuesday, when asked about the pressure on his side.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWhat I\u2019ve learned from my career as a manager is, what you cannot control, forget about it. To do better what you have not done better this season. To arrive in better position to fight for the Premier League, that we are still fighting.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Guardiola said he expected Palace to be a difficult team to beat, despite the 15th-placed side being winless in their last four top-flight games.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThey have a European final,\u201d he said, referring to Palace\u2019s upcoming Conference League final against Rayo Vallecano on May 27.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cMaybe struggling a bit in the Premier League with a lot of changes. Manager (Oliver Glasner) is leaving\u2026 and maybe they were not consistent, but the quality is there.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Guardiola said City\u2019s injured midfielder Rodri and defender Abdukodir Khusanov were feeling much better but did not say whether they would return to action against Palace.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Palace are also set to play Arsenal in the final game of their Premier League campaign, three days before the Conference League final.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Asked if he was worried Palace would field a weakened side against Arsenal to rest key players ahead of their maiden European final, Guardiola said he was not concerned about that.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThey are so professional, the teams. Crystal Palace will play top against (Arsenal),\u201d Guardiola said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>With the FA Cup final against Chelsea coming up on Saturday, followed by a trip to Bournemouth three days later, Guardiola admitted that City may also need to rotate their squad.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cAfter three days we travel to London, then come back and play Bournemouth. So of course\u2026 I have to think about it, yeah,\u201d he added.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23577,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-34396","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Guardiola said City\u2019s injured midfielder Rodri and defender Abdukodir Khusanov were feeling much better","published_date":"","news_description":"Guardiola said City\u2019s injured midfielder Rodri and defender Abdukodir Khusanov were feeling much better","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34398,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34396\/revisions\/34398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}