Pep: City ‘controlled’ game against ‘long ball’ Arsenal

Matt Stead

Pep Guardiola insists that Manchester City “controlled” Arsenal, who “played long balls” in their win on Sunday.

The Gunners advanced to the FA Cup final courtesy of a 2-1 win over City, who led through Sergio Aguero’s second-half strike.

Nacho Monreal equalised ten minutes later however, and Alexis Sanchez scored the winner in extra-time. You can read 16 Conclusions from the game.

City boasted 66% possession by the end of the game, and had 20 shots to Arsenal’s nine, with Guardiola insisting his side “controlled” the game.

“You cannot expect to control all the situations but we controlled most of the time,” he said.

“They played long balls to Giroud and used the counter attack with the quality of their players and set pieces – they are a tall team.

“Everybody plays football how he wants. Tottenham against Chelsea was an outstanding game.

“Tottenham were fantastic how they played but one team hit the target four times and scored four goals.

“We created more chances than Arsenal. We knew how good they are in front and how fast they are in the counter attack but we controlled them.

“We didn’t create too much but it’s not easy with eight to 10 players there.”