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Arsenal: Arsene Wenger Delivers Well Placed Challenge For Pep Guardiola
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal gaffer Arsene Wenger has wasted no time in issuing a subtle challenge to EPL newcomer Pep Guardiola. How right is Wenger?
One of the main things that helps me sleep at night is knowing that Pep Guardiola is in for a surprise when he comes to the Premier League. Everyone and their sister is appointing him the Manchester messiah, but when you get down to it, his track record shows no indication that he will find success in England.
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Guardiola has managed two of the best teams in the world – Barcelona and Bayern Munich. He has continued their success and left the club in good shape. But La Liga and the Bundesliga are incredibly top heavy and Guardiola managed the top teams. In Spain, he only had to compete with Real Madrid and in Germany, he only had to compete with a resurgent Borussia Dortmund.
Consider Louis van Gaal. The Dutchman found success in short stints at Barcelona and Bayern Munich as well. He came to one of the most storied and rich clubs in England and he is having a hard time establishing any sort of consistency. And that is with much more experience than Pep Guardiola has.
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So why would Pep Guardiola be any different? As Van Gaal has proven, you cannot just waltz into the Premier League, buy a few players, and be be title favorites. It does not work that way. Every single match in the Premier League is a test, from Leicester to Aston Villa. There are no Hannover 96’s or Levante’s in England. Every team is here fighting for there life and believing that they belong here.
Pep is not going to shift City into cruise control and coast to title after title, putting down Arsenal, United, Liverpool and the like. Not by a long shot. Arsene Wenger has been quick to point that out.
“If you look at the tendency and the trend in the Premier League now, of course it’s difficult to have a high win percentage for everybody, not just Pep,” he said, via the Daily Star. “The Premier League is now maybe more difficult to be consistent in than any other league.”
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Take it from the longest tenured manager in England, Pep, you are not going to walk into a brand new team and find a remake of Barcelona.
Manchester City already boast a considerable amount of talent fresh from the store and they cannot establish any sort of consistency. Why? Because as Wenger wisely said from his experience at Arsenal, it is difficult to be consistent and as we have learned from Manchester United, sometimes time is a better adhesive, not money.
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I know many Arsenal supporters out there wanted Pep Guardiola at the Emirates and it may have been a great fit, who knows. But thinking that Pep is going to end all Arsenal’s title hopes is foolish. It is still Manchester City and they still can’t sell out home games.