Pep quips at Arsenal and Liverpool transfer spends
Pep Guardiola has quipped that if Liverpool or Arsenal beat Manchester City to the Premier League title this season, it will be purely because of their large transfer spending.
City visits Arsenal for a huge match-up between two potential title challengers on Monday (AEST), with both teams already playing catch-up behind defending champion Liverpool.
Arne Slot's Reds have won their first four games of the campaign, having spent more than £400 million ($817.2 million) on Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez and Giovanni Leoni in the most recent transfer window.
Arsenal, meanwhile, added Viktor Gyokeres, Eberechi Eze, Martin Zubimendi, Noni Madueke, Cristhian Mosquera, Christian Norgaard, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Piero Hincapie.
City has attracted criticism for its transfer activity in the past, and speaking to reporters ahead of the Gunners clash, Guardiola suggested Liverpool and Arsenal deserve the same treatment.
"I want to say to my friend Mikel Arteta, if he wins the title, it will be just because he spent, not because he or his players worked a lot," he said.
"It's like Liverpool. If Arne wins again, it will be because he spent a lot of money. Right? Because it's not just Man City where that happened, right? It's all of them.
"Listen, for many, many years every club can do whatever they want. I know how they've been treated is completely different, but whatever he wants to spend is fine."
City has rallied after back-to-back defeats prior to the international break, beating Manchester United 3-0 in the Premier League and Napoli 2-0 in the UEFA Champions League.
But City has lost on its past two league trips to Arsenal, as many defeats as in its previous 14 visits – winning seven, losing two and drawing five.
It is its longest losing run away to the Gunners since April 2009 – four in a row – and it was trounced 5-1 last time it visited in February.
Although another defeat could see City slip nine points off the title pace, Guardiola does not believe the result will be decisive either way, saying: "It's the fifth game. Come on.
"When I arrived, Brian Kidd told me that Sir Alex Ferguson said, 'In the Premier League, you have to stay close to the top four up to Boxing Day'. After that, you can think about it.
"Last season, after Boxing Day, we were in another country. So that's why, let's go today and we'll see what happens. There are many games.
"From my experience, in the six Premier League wins, I think four or five, we were behind Liverpool or Arsenal in December or January. And at the end, we won it.
"We're not going to win the Premier League on Sunday. We're not going to lose the Premier League on Sunday [Monday AEST]."
