Pep Guardiola has compared Manchester City’s attempt to secure the Premier League title this weekend to serving for a Wimbledon championship. If Arsenal lose to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, or City beat Chelsea the following day, they will wrap up the title and be on course for the Treble after beating Real Madrid on Wednesday to reach the Champions League final. Guardiola said, “Tennis players say to serve to win Wimbledon is the most difficult one. It’s non-stop. Of course we are satisfied to play the Champions League final but now is coming the most difficult thing. But on Sunday the game is in our hands to win the most important competition.”
The City manager also noted that his team has shown the same mentality this season as they have in previous title-winning campaigns, despite spending the majority of this year behind long-time leaders Arsenal. They trailed the Gunners by eight points at the start of April, but a run of 11 consecutive league wins stretching back to February has seen them open up a four-point gap at the summit as they seek a fifth Premier League title in six seasons. Guardiola said, “Now we talk about mentalities because we won. And I don’t believe in that. I defend the team when we lose and they had the same mentality. This is the reality. To recover eight points on Arsenal – first we had one game in hand in that moment, so it was a little bit fake but we knew we had to win almost all games and they had to drop it. If Arsenal had maintained the same rhythm as the first leg [half of the season] and doing what they had done it would not be possible to catch them. But they drop a few points and we were there. Again, another season, and that means a lot to us.”