What Pep Guardiola said after Man City vs Arsenal two years ago has finally aged like milk

Just over two years ago, Arsenal came painfully close to beating Man City at the Etihad Stadium for the first time since 2015. You probably remember the game - I know I do.

My partner and I were in the pub with my mates. One of them was a Chelsea fan who obviously wanted Man City to win - Why wouldn't he? Making fun of Arsenal was too funny back then. The other was a Sheffield United fan who, honestly, was probably missing that warming feeling of bad football.

After the game, I wish I were the same. Arsenal had played the best football I'd seen in years, even down to ten men, but came out with two dropped points rather than three gained. Perhaps Ted Lasso was wrong - the hope really does kill you.

Riccardo Calafiori scored a screamer, John Stones scored a late equaliser, and Leandro Trossard was sent off. Oh, yeah, it was the game where Erling Haaland threw the ball at Gabriel's head, too.

Pep Guardiola's 'honest' Man City admission is simply hilarious in 2026

What is most hilarious about this game is what happened after, but it's something we didn't pay much attention to at the time. Pep Guardiola came out to the media and, as he always did, took the moral high ground.

He described Man City as an 'honest' team - which is obviously hilarious given everything that has come out about the club over the last few weeks.

"I know what the opponents are going to do," Pep Guardiola said, referring to Arsenal's tactics. "Tactically, there is always a way to try to do it. The behaviours we cannot control don’t take away from what is important: the game. We are an honest team. We try to do our best.”

Only with hindsight can we analyse how Man City and its employees communicated to the media while their charges were being looked into. On the pitch, they were often portrayed as the innocent party - a stance the club still holds off the pitch even after their boatload of guilty verdicts.

Obviously, Guardiola was talking about Man City the team - not Man City the club. There is a difference, and it's certainly worth separating the two, but the way the team acted worked as a distraction to the way the club played.

Man City (the team) played beautiful football. Some of the best football the world has ever seen, actually - exactly what you would expect from a team coached by Pep Guardiola.

However, you can't help but notice the irony of Guardiola's comments, considering the club he was employed by. Guardiola insisted that we should focus on the game - subtly implying that Man City played football the right way, despite Arsenal's "behaviours" threatening their honest game. They were just trying to do their best, right?

Wrong. Language is important, and there's a reason why everyone considered Man City the harmless team that was just trying to do their best - because Pep Guardiola himself said it. He was (and still is) a likeable guy who always made an effort to respect other coaches in the Premier League. Anything he said, we as football fans embedded in our subconscious minds.

Nevertheless, it doesn't escape him calling Man City an 'honest' team and insisting we stick to football, being absolutely ironic.

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