‘You want the title? OK, fight’: Guardiola challenges Arsenal before City clash

Pep Guardiola has told Arsenal they will have to “fight” to take the Premier League title from Manchester City as the teams prepare to meet on Wednesday night.

Victory for City at Arsenal would make them leaders on goal difference, although Mikel Arteta’s team will have a game in hand. Guardiola’s side hope to secure the title for a third successive season, Arsenal for the first time since 2004. City’s manager was asked who is more motivated.

“The biggest motivation is that I don’t want to drop the Premier League just because we are not who we are,” Guardiola said. “If they beat us because they are better then this is sport, I’ll be the first to congratulate them, as I’ve always done. But not because we are not there.

“You want it? OK, fight. Take it. It’s in our hands. We’ll defend this title until the last day. This is what I’d like. To fight to the maximum to try to retain the title. If we don’t, accept it. But we need to give our best. My players have to feel that every day.

“It’s impossible to win two leagues and every day to be perfect. Arsenal has an incredible history, bigger than us in terms of titles. But not recently. They have something special that we don’t have because we won it recently. We have to find another trick, other ways, to find the fire as a team and individually to say that we can still do it. If we didn’t have that, we wouldn’t be second. We’d be far, far away.”

Guardiola was asked whether his message to City’s players will be to enjoy the size of the occasion at the Emirates Stadium. “I don’t know if enjoy is the right word,” he said. “We have to be so aggressive, handle the rhythm and pressure. They are going to create pressure on us through the fans, the referee, the players. We have to be so active in many things.”

Despite winning so many major trophies as a manager Guardiola is excited by Wednesday’s meeting. “Yeah, definitely. We know how the environment will be after what has happened in recent weeks and the quality of the opponent,” he said.