Manchester City’s Spanish manager Pep Guardiola reacts during the English Premier League football match between Liverpool and Manchester City at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on February 8, 2026. (AFP)
Pep Guardiola said Tuesday Manchester City must address a habit of second half slumps if they are to retain any hope of chasing down Arsenal at the top of the Premier League.
City scored twice late on to snatch a 2-1 victory away to Liverpool on Sunday and move back within six points of the Gunners. However, those were the first goals Guardiola’s men have scored in the second half of any Premier League game in 2026.
City blew a 2-0 first half lead to draw 2-2 against Tottenham the week before and were again outplayed for large parts of the second half at Anfield after dominating the first 45 minutes. Victory over Fulham Wednesday will cut the gap at the top down to three points for 24 hours at least before Arsenal visit Brentford.
But Guardiola said talk of a title race is premature until City iron out their inconsistency. “We have to be better and to be closer to make the first half in Anfield and not the second,” Guardiola said at his pre-match press conference.
“What is the reason why in the second half still we are dropping our performance? Not (whether the gap is) three, four, five, six points because if we don’t do that, we will not win. Maybe not against Fulham, maybe it’ll be against Newcastle or maybe in the next game at Leeds.”
City’s quest to win silverware in four different competitions was boosted by the return of Ruben Dias as a second half substitute against Liverpool. But in the absence of centre-backs Dias and Josko Gvardiola through injury, Abdukodir Khusanov has taken his chance for more first-team opportunities.
Guardiola hailed the improvement of the young Uzbek defender, who arrived in Manchester just over a year ago with little English and took time to adapt. “I admit he doesn’t speak like William Shakespeare, but he’s getting better and better,” added Guardiola.
“He’s so, so fast. To recover that position is one of his attributes. But not just that he’s intelligent. Normally when a player has this physicality he doesn’t use what’s going on (in his head) and it’s always his physical condition, and he has both. That’s why on the ball he’s getting better. That’s why he’s encouraged to improve and he can improve. At that age and he’s open minded and I said recently, ‘City have a player in central defence for many, many years’.”
Guardiola said it does not help to pay attention to title race speculation before every game, and he focuses entirely on beating his next opponents. “Every time over the past weeks and months when I go before the game for an interview, (it’s) always if you lose you are losing everything and are going to disappear from the planet earth and stuff,” Guardiola said. “So what I am saying is what do you have to do to beat Fulham?”
City, seeking their seventh English top-flight title in Guardiola’s decade-long tenure, have won only two of their last seven league games, allowing Arsenal to pull further ahead with four wins in the same period. “The distance is not huge but considering how Arsenal is doing, six points is a lot. Next game against a team like (Fulham) who every year is better and better, so we’ll see,” Guardiola said.
City had to dig deep to snatch a 5-4 win at Fulham in December, and Guardiola praised the way the London side have improved under Marco Silva since earning their promotion to the Premier League in 2022.
“The movements they do… they’re really good. The patterns and the quality they have, the composure of the play, the speed they have. Marco is one of the top, top, top managers I face. Destined to be one of the top in a few years for sure,” Guardiola said.
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