If this were the EPL, would VAR call out a “mate” for clear and obvious error here? pic.twitter.com/cS2QWny2uV— Out Of Context Football (@nocontextfooty) December 5, 2023
Pep responded to the Arteta comment: "People say, ‘Ah, you wanna make a dig to Mikel (Arteta)’. I didn’t want to make a dig to Mikel. It was a little joke, maybe people didn’t get it. If I want to say something to Mikel, I promise you: I’ll call him. We spoke to each other one week ago.” Also taking shots at pundits, pundit fires back 🚨 Pep on pundits: "They know how difficult it is [to win PL four times in a row]. Neville, Micah Richards... never, ever. And then Jamie Carragher didn’t win one once".🔴 Jamie Carragher: "I think I’d have probably won one if Liverpool were owned by a nation state, and pushed… pic.twitter.com/7kGhdITwpe— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) December 6, 2023
If that's true, it's pretty stupid for either of them to say those things publicly. It's a no-win IMHO.
Funniest thing for me is the stone-faced looks of everyone watching him trying not to bust a gut laughing.
I like to think of Pep and Mikel as step siblings who are in love, and Pep got stuck in the washing machine, and now he is waiting for the loving embrace of Mikel
Villa currently creating all the chances. Edit: 0-0 at the half. Shots in first half Villa 13, City 2.
City look like they are defending for their lives right now, getting absolutely swarmed by Villa. I hope Villa gets all of this energy out of their system before Saturday.
Villa are clearly a good side. This might work to our advantage on Saturday as City may serve as a scouting team of sorts for us since City has a similarly stingy defense as ours. Hopefully/Ideally Arteta and staff will identify how to mitigate the same threats or we may see an unfortunate result as well.
First time I’ve watched Villa this year. Saturday won’t be easy, they are for real. Leon Bailey was probably Villa’s best player today, so who do Arsenal start at left back on Saturday? Edit: BTW if Arsenal are looking for a Villa midfielder in January, Kamara would be a much cheaper alternative to Luiz. But I don’t think Villa will be selling any of their starters.
We're the last team to beat them at Villa Park in the league. Also this: 2 - Man City attempted just two shots in this match; the fewest ever by a Pep Guardiola team in a game within Europe’s big-five leagues, while the 22 shots from Aston Villa was the joint-most faced by a Guardiola side in the same period (tonight his 535th such game). Dominated. pic.twitter.com/T0gjP1ZbpZ— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 6, 2023 Saturday's gonna be a tough one.
I stayed away from the news today. And I just watch the second half of AVL-MC. Great half a football! Villa were so brave and confident in the way they played. And watching Citeh pinned back in their third, pinned back in their box! Really impressive. Kudos to Unai. He and his boys owned Pep and his. Villa Park was rockin. And yesterday’s big smile came back on my face today.
And those 2 shots from City were a double save from Emi. Be interesting to see what City take from our win at Luton, as they play them there this weekend, and what we take from the City loss at Villa since we have them there. This Villa match is the only time this season I am not confident.
True but I think the difference this year is that with KDB being out and Gundawg at Barça, they are perhaps a bit more thin in midfield than they have been in other title-winning campaigns. They also have no real double for Rodri (I wonder if Pep would like that Kalvin Phillips fee back). BTW, perhaps more impressive is the fact that Arsenal is nearly matching their pace from last season, something that was deemed unlikely to be repeated. They are just four points worse off than last campaign after 13 games. Just two more draws than last season at this stage.
Sure - the absence of KDB/Gundo likely explains the difference. but we've seen Pep fix these problems before
Indeed. But they aren’t the same team when Rodri doesn’t play, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pep team held to two shots.