EPL: Three games will define our season – Guardiola speaks after Newcastle win

Published

2 years ago

March 5, 2023

Seyi Babalola

Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, has said their next three fixtures will define their season.

Guardiola was speaking after their 2-0 win over Newcastle in Saturday’s early kick-off.

Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva scored for the Premier League champions as they kept track with leaders Arsenal.

“We played a really good first half and after the game went up and down we put Bernardo on to make our possessions longer, we needed to keep more of the ball.

“It’s part of his intuition to do high pressing…

“An incredibly good result for us because it was a tricky game. Now we have three games in different competitions before the international break which will define our season,” Guardiola said.

City travel to Crystal Palace in the Premier League next Saturday, before hosting RB Leipzig in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on March 14.

They then face Burnley in the FA Cup quarter-finals on March 18.

EPL: Can’t cry about it — Arteta on Arsenal’s 1-1 draw at Fulham

Published

4 days ago

December 8, 2024

Seyi Babalola

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has said they cannot “cry about” the 1-1 draw at Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday.

Arteta, however, insisted his team deserved to take all three points.

Raul Jimenez opened the scoring for the hosts in the first half before William Saliba levelled in the 52nd minute.

Speaking after the match, Arteta said: “Gutted that we didn’t win it. We fully deserved to win it. That’s the quality of the opposition, so you cannot cry about it. We generated all the chances but it’s so difficult to attack.”

Arsenal had 70 per cent possession and VAR denied Bukayo Saka what would have been a late winner.

Sports

EPL: ‘We started badly’ – Amorim on Man Utd’s 3-2 loss to Nottingham Forest

Published

5 days ago

December 7, 2024

Seyi Babalola

Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has admitted his team did not do enough to beat Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Saturday.

The Red Devils suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time under Amorim, losing 3-2 to Nuno Espirito Santo’s men.

Goals from Nikola Milenkovic, Morgan Gibbs-White and Chris Wood moved Forest up to fifth place, with Rasmus Hojlund and Bruno Fernandes getting on the scoresheet for United.

The result leaves United in 13th place, 10 points above relegation places.

Amorim, speaking with BBC Sport, said: “Tough game. We started really bad. The first play we suffered a goal and then it’s hard to try to fight. We then controlled the game and had a lot of situations.

“We improved the movement in the last third. We managed to draw the game and then, at halftime, we were ready to go for the win and then started really bad. Two goals. Then we tried a lot of things with not a lot of quality.

“We didn’t have many situations to score. Tough game in a tough moment but we have to continue the job.”