Pep Guardiola Explains Why Manchester City ‘Parked the Bus’ Against Arsenal
- Pep Guardiola has justified his tactics during Manchester City’s 1-1 draw against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium
- Erling Haaland put Manchester City ahead in the ninth minute before Gabriel Martinelli equalised in the 93rd minute.
- Guardiola adopted a conservative approach after his team was battered 5-1 in the same fixture last season
Pep Guardiola has explained his tactics during Manchester City's 1-1 draw against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, September 21, 2025.
Erling Haaland opened the scoring for City in the ninth minute, latching on to a pass from Tijjani Reijnders to put the Citizens ahead.
Source: Getty Images
Brazilian winger Gabriel Martinelli equalised deep into the additional minutes of the extra time, broke through the City defence, and dinked it over Gianluigi Donnarumma.
City fans felt bad that they threw away a win late in the game, but they took the points, having suffered an embarrassing 5-1 loss in the same fixture last season.
However, football fans generally questioned Guardiola's approach of adopting Jose Mourinho’s famous defensive tactics, widely referred to as “parking the bus.”
According to Sky Sports, City had 33.2% of the possession, the lowest of any Guardiola side throughout his top-flight managerial career.
Guardiola defends tactics against Arsenal
Guardiola has admitted that he altered Manchester City's tactics this season, amid widespread claims that he parked the bus against Arsenal.
“I said many times, I would say, jokes aside, for the fact that always when we won the Premier League, we were a boring team, right? So that’s why I said, ‘okay, I’m going to use counter-attacks more this season’,” he said as quoted by Metro UK.
He added that only his players past and present can actually say that he changed the approach of how his team plays, and that will happen in the future, because they have witnessed it all.
However, in defence of his team's gameplay against Arsenal, he gave credit to the opponent for making them play that way, and that he didn't change much from how City have played since the start of the season.
“I think it’s completely the same, completely. What changed is that the opponents play a different way, and we are not able to do it better. I said after the game, Arsenal were better,” he added.
Source: Getty Images
“I don’t like to play in the way we played at Arsenal, but there are a lot of things I love about it that I didn’t have in the past. but I love it. And I said in this press conference, but the way we want to play and sustain that.”
Both sides are in the race to dethrone champions Liverpool, who have invested over £500 million, including breaking the British transfer record fee twice to sign Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak.
Guardiola's message to Arteta before the match
Legit.ng reported that Guardiola told Mikel Arteta the brutal truth about what it takes to win the Premier League title before the match at the Emirates Stadium.
Guardiola told his former assistant that if his team wins the Premier League this season, it would be because of how much he spent in the transfer market.
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Source: Legit.ng
