Man City boss Pep Guardiola has joked that if Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta wins the Premier League title this season “it will be just because he spent”.
Guardiola has often been provided with wonderful players during his time at the Etihad Stadium with calls from opposition fans usually amounting to “but could he do it with team X”.
Man City have consistently been one of the highest spenders in the Premier League but there are now six English teams ahead of them in the five-year net spend table.
The clubs high spending has often been thrown in Guardiola’s face when he’s achived consistent success but Arsenal and Liverpool both spent big in the 2025 summer transfer window.
Arsenal brought in eight new players in the form of Kepa Arrizabalaga, Christian Norgaard, Martin Zubimendi, Noni Madueke, Viktor Gyokeres, Eberechi Eze, Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapie.
On Arsenal’s big spending over the summer, Guardiola told reporters on Friday: “It’s what it is. They decided to do it in Arsenal.
“Only I want to say to my friend Mikel Arteta, if he wins the title it will be just because he spent, not because he worked a lot or his players. It’s like Liverpool. If Arne wins again, it will be because he spent a lot of money. Right? Because it’s not just Man City that happened, right?
“So for all of them. Listen, for many, many years every club can do whatever he wants. I know how they’ve been treated is completely different, but what he wants to spend is because they want it and it’s fine.
“All I can say is they have been wise. They spent what they believe they can do it to compete against the best teams in the Premier League and Europe and they’ve reached that level.
“He found a team in that way, a club, and step by step, window by window, step by step, Arsenal is getting better. So last season in Europe, they made incredible step forward and they are for me the most solid team. They don’t make mistakes in the back and this incredible solid team.
“They have pace up front, they have of course set pieces with Nico Jover – he was here. It’s in every department. But we know it. So every team is better and better and better and I know the quality that all of them they have.”
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On the match against Arsenal, Guardiola added: “The game last season we started like many times last season and a thousand million goals, and after we were a lot of the time pretty good, considering how it was last season, and the last 15-20 minutes were a disaster.
“We forgot to do what we had do and after that it was easy for Arsenal. Hopefully this season we can make a little few more challenges because Mikel Arteta is an extraordinary manager and they increase the squad for this four or five transfer windows.
“So it is an unbelievable squad and an unbelievable team, it is one of the toughest opponents you can find now in Europe and we try to compete. I want to compete to be a better team than we were last season, especially in the last 20-25 minutes.”
Rodri has returned to action in a big boost to Man City but Guardiola admits he’s not sure if his defensive midfielder can start three games in a week.
Guardiola continued: “It’s a good question. I don’t know yet. He was so smart, I know the result was not over, 1-0 is always tricky but he does not feel good always we try to talk please, we try to sustain and feel that is not comfortable and is better.
“We see day by day, but be ready for games. Yesterday, for example, the training session, he didn’t feel comfortable, he did not feel good but said ‘no, no, I’ll be fine tomorrow’ and played extraordinary, like Rodri is.
“And with him on the pitch we feel more comfortable. But, of course, after injury you have to be alert and we will decide on Sunday how he does feel.”
