Pep Guardiola warns Man City must ‘be patient’ in title race after ‘horrible’ tactical mistake against Arsenal

Pep Guardiola says Manchester City “have to be patient” as he still considers Arsenal to be the Premier League “leaders”.

He said: “We are top of the league but they have one game in hand. It’s a long road, but coming here and winning against this team, the first time they were better than us. Half time we said we can’t play, we were just defending because they were so good, but we should be so active.”

Bernardo Silva started at left-back in the game, a tactical development that Guardiola admitted was a mistake.

“I decided something new and it was horrible,” said Guardiola.

“The second half we were more like we are. We let them play, they found the players behind, the second half we chatted a little bit, going more aggressive, and we controlled the ball more and we played more. Erling [Haaland] helped a lot, he used his power to keep the ball.

“In the first half they had one more player in midfield, the second half we were much better.

“Bernardo is so important because he is so clever, he is a player who started at left-back and finished as a right winger.”

Asked if he considered his side to have the initiative in the title race, the Spaniard noted that there were plenty more games to come.

He continued: “[There are] many games to play.

“I consider them the leaders. Many things are going to happen, we are not going to win all the games. Just be patient.”

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta admitted his “disappointment” after the loss.

“Disappointment because we lost it,” said Arteta.

“I think it was an incredible battle between two teams, and when we had them, we gave them the goals.

“On the other hand we had three big chances and didn’t put them away. To beat them you have to be over our level because they are such a good team, we had them in big moments.

“In individual moments they were better than us. The second half as well, we had periods where we were really precise, but we had moments where we put ourselves in trouble, the way we gave the goals away.”