City moved top of the Premier League for at least 24 hours with an emphatic 5-1 victory over Luton Town at the Etihad Stadium.
With Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday night and Chelsea in an FA Cup semi-final on Saturday, the big matches keep coming.
And Guardiola says it’s a privilege to be in the hunt for silverware at the end of the season and the ambition is to try to keep extending our challenge for as long as possible.
“We spoke to the players about how incredible it is to be here again,” he said. “Before the game we spoke and said ‘we have to admit it, what a privilege’.
“After what we have done in the previous seasons: fighting for the title one point behind, 80 points, 21 points left, on Wednesday playing against Real Madrid with the chance to qualify for the Champions League semi-finals with all the energy our fans will bring, all the best positive moods they will bring to us here and then FA Cup next Saturday to reach the final. What a privilege to be here.
“Imagine to be [in with] no chance of the Premier League or no chance for the other competitions.”
Victory moved us above Arsenal and Liverpool who play on Sunday and Guardiola added that they can only try to maintain the pressure on our title rivals.
“Try and extend one more week, one more week, one more week,” he said. “Go there. One more week. In Premier League, we have one more week. We have a chance.
“They know, if they drop points, no chance. I don’t know [what will happen] tomorrow but, knowing today, they will win 100%.
“The only way is to win our games and put the pressure on. Luton is a difficult game, okay we score five goals. This is the only message we can do.
“We have six games and after if we are not able, congratulate them. But we have done our job and that is what we have to do.”
| 1 |
|
Manchester City Man City | 38 | 28 | 7 | 3 | 96 | 34 | 62 | 91 | WWWWW | |
| 2 |
|
Arsenal Arsenal | 38 | 28 | 5 | 5 | 91 | 29 | 62 | 89 | WWWWW | |
| 3 |
|
Liverpool Liverpool | 38 | 24 | 10 | 4 | 86 | 41 | 45 | 82 | LDWDW |
An own goal from Daiki Hashioka gave City the lead after just 65 seconds against Luton but we had to be patient for our second to arrive.
Mateo Kovacic finally doubled our lead with a fierce strike before an Erling Haaland penalty and late goals from Jeremy Doku and Josko Gvardiol ensured a handsome victory.
The scoreline didn’t reflect how difficult the Hatters had made it for City for more than an hour with the visitors always in the game while it remained 1-0.
“Yeah [it was] really hard,” Guardiola said. “Until the second goal, I would say not tired because we played really good and had a lot of chances in the first half but we missed something in the finishing.
“We created a lot but didn’t concede. But how many times in world football have I seen at the end a team that’s better sometimes doesn’t win the game? Many times.
“After the second and third, okay we conceded after the third one, it happens in football but in general the performance, considering Madrid, the guys performed like we are.
“We are close to qualify for the Champions League and people say ‘okay Pep, what are you saying?’ but no, we have to qualify for the Champions League.
“Because of the defeat for Tottenham today, we are closer for the stability, for many reasons, the other clubs know how important it is.
“It’s the biggest target every season. We are closer today. Today we will sleep top of the league, see tomorrow and we know what we have to do.”
