Pep Guardiola sends Mikel Arteta clear message from Wembley after Arsenal’s latest wobble
Manchester City advanced to the FA Cup final after a stunning win over Sheffield United. And in doing so, sent another message to their title rivals that they’re only going to get better
Pep Guardiola messaged Mikel Arteta about the bottle at Wembley.
If he had sent a warning – a message in a bottle, if you will – ahead of Judgment Day this week at the Etihad, it would have been written in big letters. And it could have read: That Manchester City are primed, ready and waiting – as they have shown how to handle pressure at Wembley.
That score was emphatic. It didn’t have to be. At the final whistle it only had to be in favor of the sky blue. But if the highs were to be kept alive, this was a hurdle they had to overcome.
The Blades were tricky, tenacious opponents with a lot of confidence looking to capitalize on an exhausted squad that had been pushed to the limit. But unlike Arsenal, who faced bottom-placed Southampton at home on Friday and had a chance to turn things around, this dominant performance showed Manchester City are made of the right stuff.
The Gunners have been getting under the pump for the past few weeks and little by little the wheels are falling off. The memo they are sending out to the world is that their side cannot take the loss of key players like William Saliba and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Cracks have started to appear. It rubs off on others.
Suddenly Aaron Ramsdale looks shaky. Goals are given away at a rate of nodes. Five this week – in two games against relegation contenders.
The result is that we are at the business end of the season – and Arsenal are falling.
Not Manchester City. Oh no.
They too faced a team in the drop zone against Leicester City last week and were ahead by three goals in 25 minutes. This came just after an hour after Riyad Mahrez unexpectedly wrote himself into FA Cup folklore by scoring a hat-trick in 23 minutes.
Leicester? Tick. Bayern Munich. Big catch. And Sheffield United. Tick.
What makes this even more impressive is that the stakes are higher for them. Everyone expects to win – until the season ends. There is no margin for error. Losing in any game this week could have spelled disaster on three fronts for Guardiola.
Still, he and his men escaped unharmed. Still with the very real possibility that a treble – hailed as a one-off achievement by Manchester United – might not be the case.
Guardiola got a much easier pass than 12 months ago when he faced similar problems. Back then, Liverpool stood in his way. This semi-final was the result of a tough, uncompromising night in Madrid against Atletico.
He traded seven of his teammates for Diego Simeone’s mob after that fight and was just one shy about repeating those changes for this time. But while Paul Heckingbottom’s men were game, they were never really in the game.
Ederson was one of the men Guardiola gave the afternoon off, but his replacement Stefan Moreno won’t remember too much of the afternoon – he was just looking around the arena.
And that’s the way it should be when top teams chase glory.
Sheffield United have tried – focusing on their own fateful day on the same night as the Premier League title-chasers clash. West Brom visits Bramall Lane. Automatic promotion is at stake. You will pick yourself up again.
And that won’t have affected the confidence too much. The die-hard fans, who traveled to north London with more hope than expectation, will ensure the atmosphere remains upbeat.
Who knows? Maybe they can even open a bottle or two at the final whistle.
At Manchester City, the dream continues. A shipment of the famous green glassware full of bubbles appears to be on its way to east Manchester at some point.
However, how many they will need remains to be seen.