Pep Guardiola experienced the worst match of his managerial career against Arsenal

Recently, Pep Guardiola endured the worst game of his coaching career in the national league as Manchester City ended in a draw against Arsenal.

Pep Guardiola reached a career low milestone in Manchester City's 1-1 draw against Arsenal at the Emirates. According to OptaJoe, Man City controlled only 32.8% of possession, the lowest percentage for any team under Guardiola’s management in 601 league matches over nearly 20 years. Previously, the teams he managed were known for their possession-based style and dominating opponents.

In March 2023, Guardiola also recorded a low possession game, again against Arsenal, with a possession rate of 36.5%. His previous worst was 34.6% when managing Bayern Munich against Barcelona in the 2015 Champions League.

Before facing Arsenal, Man City had matches against Manchester United and Napoli within a single week. Guardiola explained this forced his team to adopt a more defensive approach and reduce pressing intensity:

“We played with resilience and came very close to winning. Over the past 10 years, I have faced many teams parking the bus in front of their box, and today we were the ones who had to do it."

He added: “We cannot analyze without considering the context. We just went through tough matches against United and Napoli. The players showed great resilience. When pressing is ineffective, things become difficult. I think the draw was fair. Arsenal played better, we were more tired. The Napoli match was emotional, then we had only four or five hours to travel to London. It was very hard, but we were there and showed character. We had to cope with fatigue and many injuries like John Stones, Rayan Cherki, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Nathan Ake, and then Abdukodir Khusanov.”

After five rounds, Man City currently sits ninth in the Premier League standings. They will face Huddersfield Town in the Carabao Cup third round on September 24, before hosting Burnley in the Premier League over the weekend.

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