JAKARTA - Manchester City is getting closer to Arsenal after defeating Newcastle United 2-1 in the English Premier League match. This victory is a good signal, but manager Pep Guardiola admits that Man City is difficult to win all league matches.
The distance with Arsenal who are at the top of the standings is only two points after Man City won a crucial victory at the Etihad, Sunday, February 22, 2026 WIB. Man City's full points success was contributed by Nico O'Reilly's two goals. Meanwhile, the only goal of Newcastle that narrowed the defeat was produced by Lewis Hall.
After the match against The Toon Army, both Man City and Arsenal have actually played 27 matches. However, Arsenal still has a match schedule this weekend.
Only, Arsenal faces their neighbors, Tottenham Hotspur in The North London Derby, Sunday night. A big game that is decisive for Arsenal. If you win in the North London Derby which is held at the opponent's home at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, The Gunners can at least breathe a sigh of relief because the distance with Man City is five points.
Currently, Arsenal, who lost two points after being held by Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-2 in the last match, still occupies the top of the standings with 58 points. If a draw, let alone a loss, Arsenal is clearly in danger because Man City's threat is real.
They are more confident after winning three consecutive victories in the English League. On the other hand, Arsenal only won two victories from the last seven matches in the league.
Even though he has cut the points gap with Arsenal, Guardiola has not been able to confirm that Man City is able to catch up with his rival. The competition is indeed getting hotter and tighter because it leaves 11 more matches. However, Guardiola admitted that it was difficult to bring Man City to win all the remaining matches.
"Of course this point is very important. But we have to keep improving ourselves to have the opportunity to compete until the end. Now we will give a three-day break and then face the next match against Leeds," said Guardiola as quoted by Metro.
"I just don't know what will happen in the next match. What is clear is that we are close to those at the top. This is certainly a good signal," he said again.
"But it's worth knowing that a lot of things will happen, I feel we're hard to win all the rest of the games. I don't know how it is with Arsenal. But we seem to be hard to win every game in the league," he said.
Guardiola said his team would still play many matches. They are still in the FA Cup and Champions League. Man City will also face Arsenal in the final of the English League Cup or Carabao Cup. Not to mention the players still have to strengthen their respective national teams.
"There are many matches and it could be that someone is injured. There are many possibilities. The best thing to do is to try to relax first and focus on Leeds," said the former Barcelona coach.
Guardiola also stated that Man City did not show their best performance when playing against Newcastle. However, he hopes the team can play like that in the Champions League and Premier League.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
