Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola âcould not care lessâ about what Arsenal are doing as heâs focussed on growing âexperienceâ for the Manchester City players who havenât been in a title race.
The Gunners dropped points against Wolves on Wednesday night. The Premier Leagueâs top club were 2-0 up against its bottom club before the Molineux outfit scored twice in the second half, equalising in stoppage time to draw 2-2.
Arsenal would have had a seven-point lead over City had they won, but as it stands, their lead is just five points, while the Citizens have a game in hand.
But ahead of a game against Newcastle this weekend, Guardiola does not care to take notice of what Arsenal are doing, focussing solely on what his City side can do.
He said in a press conference: â12 games is a lot. Newcastle is all I am concerned with. Iâm not concerned with the League Cup final with Arsenal until it comes. Now itâs Newcastle, rest and after Leeds. I donât know what is going to happen these next 12 games. I didnât speak one second about that with my players.
âYesterday and the day before it was Newcastle, Newcastle, Newcastle. I didnât talk about the position or the table. I could not care less. Itâs 12 games. Ask me this question with two or three games and I will answer but 12 games left is an eternity. That is the only truth I have.
âThey were nine points [in front] because we had a game in hand. When everybody has the same fixtures, and after we have the differences. Many things are going to happen until the end of the season. 70 per cent of the players are new so they donât have that experience of these kind of situations. Experience is win tomorrow.â
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Indeed, City know how much things can change in six games. At this stage in 2022-23, they were five points behind Arsenal and ended up winning the title by five points themselves.
As Guardiola mentioned, though, as lot of his squad are new and have therefore not been in this position before.
Gianluigi Donnarumma has won titles before â but not in the Premier League â and while Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders have finished near the top of the table in Ligue 1 and Serie A, neither have been in a genuine title push.
As for the likes of Marc Guehi, Antoine Semenyo and Rayan Ait-Nouri, none of those have been in this sort of position.
As such, the best thing Guardiola can do is instruct his team to take it one game at a time, not getting ahead of themselves and looking at the chance of winning the title before that chance has arrived.
