Guardiola refuses to surrender.. City is “still fighting” for the league

Spanish coach Pep Guardiola said that his Manchester City team does not feel additional pressure, although it realistically needs to win over Crystal Palace on Wednesday to maintain its hopes of winning the English Premier League title.

With three matches remaining, City is in second place, five points behind leaders Arsenal, with a game in hand.

Any failure to win at Etihad Stadium will enable his compatriot Mikel Arteta’s team to win its first league title in 22 years, when it faces Burnley on Monday.

Guardiola was asked in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday about the amount of pressure facing City after the recent results, including the disappointing 3-3 draw with Everton last week.

He said: “The same two days ago, three days, four days ago, a week, two weeks ago, the same.”

The City coach, seeking his seventh league title in nine seasons, added that he had not yet seen his players to assess their morale since the dramatic end of Arsenal’s match with West Ham on Sunday.

The Gunners won 1-0 after a very late equalizer for West Ham, threatened with relegation, was canceled after a lengthy review by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).

Guardiola said: “I learned from my career as a coach that what you cannot control, forget.”
He added: “(Focus) and try to provide what we did not do better this season in order to fight for the league title. “We are still fighting and (the next match is) Crystal Palace.”

Palace will host Arsenal in the final stage of the league season, just days before it faces the Spanish team Rayo Vallecano in the final of the continental Conference League competition, but Guardiola said he is not concerned about the possibility that they will field an incomplete squad.

“They are very professional, the teams,” he said. Crystal Palace will play their best. We saw Leeds yesterday against Tottenham (1-1 draw), how they compete even when they are outside the relegation struggle.”

Guardiola explained that Spaniard Rodri and Uzbek Abdulkadir Khosanov have become “better,” indicating that he will decide after the training session on Tuesday whether either of them is ready to return to playing.

City will face Chelsea in the FA Cup final on Saturday, and is still in the race to achieve a domestic treble after winning the League Cup earlier in the season.