Pep Guardiola praised the quality of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli after Manchester City lifted the Premier League trophy. He spoke to Sky Sports and admitted that players like Saka and Martinelli ‘need one action to beat you’ and you need top defenders like Nathan Ake to stop them. Guardiola said, ‘[Nathan Ake] has been fundamental for us. I learnt this season when you play against Bukayo Saka, Vinicius Junior, Gabriel Martinelli or Mohamed Salah, you need proper defenders to win duels one-on-one. They need just one action to beat you. Nathan gave us a boost that we did not have in the past.’
Guardiola also discussed Arsenal’s title challenge, saying, ‘Similar to Liverpool, Arsenal got to 50 points and if they sustained that rhythm it would have been almost impossible to catch up. We had to push them and wait for them to drop points, which they did, and yeah. We always thought we have to be close to them [when they came to the Etihad]. We were eight points behind… Hopefully [we thought] we could beat them [at home] and we had to do it. After that, there were more difficult games, Fulham and Everton, with the Champions League games, FA Cup semi-finals… you never know how we are going to respond. But the team was outstanding, I would say.’