A sunny Pep Guardiola said that good weather helps his side lift their levels after Manchester City closed the gap on Arsenal at the top of the Premier League with a 3-0 win over Chelsea.
City were poor during the first half at Stamford Bridge but they were a different proposition after Guardiola urged his players to raise the tempo at half-time. They raced away after taking the lead through Nico O’Reilly and responded to Arsenal’s defeat at home to Bournemouth by rising to six points off the leaders.
City have a game in hand and host Arsenal on Sunday. There has been a crucial shift in the title race and Guardiola thought of clear blue skies when he was asked why his side have such a strong record in April.
“The sun,” City’s manager said. “I’m not joking. The sun. In Manchester there is never the sun. If the sun arrived in November, we would be champions in January. Honestly, the mood is better. The mentality of the group. The hierarchy gave me the mentality of amazing players and competitive players, that is the key to success. Arsenal is a final for us – for them as well.”
Guardiola was delighted with City’s mentality in the second half, with O’Reilly’s opener followed by strikes from Marc Guéhi and Jérémy Doku. “At this stage of the season the players have to make a step up,” he said. “The second half was extraordinary because we had the mindset. In that stage it isn’t the tactics.”
City beat Arsenal in last month’s Carabao Cup final but Guardiola insisted that chasing down Mikel Arteta’s side will be tough. “Is there one person in this room who bet for us in the Carabao Cup final?” he said. “£1? Not even one bet for us. We were underdogs and that was perfect. Now it’s different. We have to respect Arsenal.”
Liam Rosenior criticised Chelsea’s inability to cope with City in the second half. “It’s happened too many times where City started the second half better than us,” the head coach said. “That can happen against a good team, but what you can’t do is concede two goals so quickly, one after the other. Again it comes down to resilience in difficult moments.”
Rosenior accepted that suspending Enzo Fernández for recent controversial comments hurt Chelsea, whose push for Champions League qualification is in danger of falling apart. He added that the midfielder will return when Chelsea, four points below fifth-placed Liverpool, host Manchester United on Saturday.
