Pep Guardiola tells Arsenal: If you want a war, bring it on

Pep Guardiola has thrown off the gloves in Manchester City’s title rivalry with Arsenal by warning: if you want a war, bring it on.

Arsenal defender Gabriel reacted to Erling Haaland throwing the ball at his head after City’s dramatic 98th-minute equaliser in last Sunday’s tempestuous 2-2 draw at the Etihad Stadium by declaring it was a “war” between the two clubs and said “now we are waiting for them at our ground”.

City’s players criticised “dirty” Arsenal’s dark arts and time-wasting antics, while Bernardo Silva taunted their rivals over a lack of trophies and claimed there was only one team interested in winning the game.

Now Guardiola has upped the ante by telling Arsenal his champions are braced for “war” this season and more than capable of handling any provocation that is thrown their way.

Asked if he liked how pumped up Haaland was during the game, the City manager said: “I would say that sometimes the emotions are so there when you are, you know... Gabriel said it perfectly in the press conference, after the match, so, this is a war.

“We have here to provoke the opponent, to push them, and at the end, what can you do? So, we have to [say], ‘OK, you provoke me, OK, I’m there. You want a war? Now we war.’

“So, what do I have to do? And after the motion, try the motion. I’m pretty sure he’s [Haaland] not proud, but listen – the type of challenge that Arsenal challenges, I understand it.”

Arteta hit back this week at City’s criticisms of Arsenal’s tactics with a veiled dig at some of the perceived methods he witnessed at the Etihad when he was Guardiola’s assistant between July 2016 and December 2019. “I have been there before – I was there for four years. I have all the information. So I know. Believe me,” said Arteta in an apparent reference to the tactical fouling and time-wasting City have been accused of in the past under Guardiola.

Those remarks are understood to have gone down particularly badly at City and in particular with Guardiola, who had urged the club not to stand in Arteta’s way when Arsenal came calling midway through the 2019-20 campaign.

In another sign of the escalating tensions between the two clubs, Guardiola responded on Friday by telling Arteta that he should explain himself. “Did he say that? … Next time, Mikel has to be more clear,” said the Catalan ahead of City’s game at Newcastle at Saturday lunchtime.

Guardiola also used the spat as an opportunity to raise the issue of the Premier League’s disciplinary case against City given there is thought to be a feeling internally at the Etihad that some of the recent leaks over stories about their 115 charges have been coming from Arsenal.

“No, next time he [Arteta] has to be more clear exactly what does it mean,” Guardiola said. “He said he was here four years and we know exactly what happened here, because it can be related in all the process now with 115 charges: maybe it’s about that?

“He knows information about that maybe, or maybe he had something like, I don’t know, because really, next time I have to see more clearly exactly what happened.”

When pressed on Arteta’s comments and how it seemed to be a deliberate attempt on the Arsenal manager’s part to suggest City know all about the application of dark arts, Guardiola added: “OK, next time, like a good relation I have with him, hopefully this question has been asked.

“He can answer exactly what does it mean when he said he was here and I know what’s happening here, and instead of being in the clouds there [points above him] to be more precise.”

Guardiola said he would not be raising the matter privately with Arteta. “No, no, no, because we spoke by text after the game and that’s all,” he said.

Asked on Friday about the intensity of their rivalry with City, Arteta said he was pleased to see their rivals riled: “I prefer this reaction much more than someone clapping my back after the game and saying: ‘Well done, you guys are in the right direction’,” he said. “This is why I do what I do.”

Arteta also insisted his relationship with Guardiola will never be affected by the rivalry between the two teams or events that take place on the pitch.

“First of all because I love him, I respect him and I admire him, his team and everything that he does,” the Arsenal manager said.

“This is a sport – one thing is our profession and the other is our personal relationship. If my relationship has to be damaged because we play against each other and one draws or the one wins, or the amount of times that we have lost, then I wouldn’t talk to him any more.

“So that’s not our relationship, especially the relationship that I consider that both of us have. Sport will never get in my way of a personal relationship.”

Asked if it is harder to maintain that relationship when the matches between the two teams are so fiery, Arteta said: “If you don’t like opinions then you shouldn’t be sitting in the position that I am, so I think it’s quite simple – don’t take it personally, it’s part of our job.

“The things that you really care about, make sure you handle them in the right way. That relationship, I really care about. It’s the same with a lot of people in their staff and players that I spent some very important years of my life with.”

The Arsenal manager added that his relationship with City makes it easier to manage these issues. “It makes it easier because I know them in very different situations, and when you get to know that person in the good and bad when things go their way or don’t, then you understand much better their certain reaction,” he said. “For me, it’s not a surprise and I’m very comfortable with that.”