Pep Guardiola has admitted that Manchester City’s second-half game plan hinged on stopping Martin Odegaard during Wednesday’s 3-1 victory over Arsenal on Wednesday. Speaking to Amazon Prime after the match, City boss Guardiola admitted that he was intent on his side stopping Arsenal captain Odegaard in the second period, something they effectively did as goals from Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland eventually secured all three points for the away side.
Pep Guardiola said: “Second half we were much, much better. [In the first half] we let them play in the build-up, in our shape. When you let them play with Jorginho, [Granit] Xhaka with Alex [Zinchenko] they found the players in behind Odegaard and the other one, the players behind and the runners outside. In the second half at half-time we adjusted a little bit. Ruben [Dias] was really good, going more aggressive to Odegaard and we controlled more of the balls. We played more and more, and Erling helped us a lot because one against one we had to do more long balls and he used his power to enable us to do it.”
The result means Guardiola’s men are now above Arsenal on goal difference, although the north London outfit do have a game in hand on their title rivals.
