Pep Guardiola thinks Arsenal, a challenger for the Premier League crown, is “on fire” in preparation for the upcoming season as they look to unseat Manchester City as champions.
In the championship battle of the previous season, which went down to the very last day and saw the top two separated by a just two points, Mikel Arteta’s team pushed City all the way.
Since then, the Gunners have added defender Riccardo Calafiori from Italy to their roster. In a recent preseason friendly, they defeated German champions Bayer Leverkusen 4-1.
When asked if he was worried about his team’s possible championship rivals before to the Community Shield matchup against FA Cup winners Manchester United, Guardiola said, “Of course.”
Since they are becoming better every year, I have been worried about how excellent they are for a long time.
I saw Arsenal play against Leverkusen, and I saw them perform at the same level as they did the previous season. They’re ablaze. It appears like they are becoming harder every year.
“United will return; they acquired players.” It’s that simple: everyone wants the crown we’ve held for the past four years. It’s how we stand up for it. We’ll see.
City suffered defeats to Celtic, AC Milan and Barcelona – on penalties after a 2-2 draw – before ending their pre-season tour in the United States with a victory over Chelsea, with England midfielder Kalvin Phillips impressing in a new centre-half role.
Phillips could start the Community Shield in the same position and Guardiola said: ‘He is a central midfielder but I said many times Kalvin likes to see all the game in front of him.
‘When he is in the middle surrounded by players he struggles a little bit, but he helped us a lot in the last two games on tour. I should have realised before [he can] play in that position. I think his confidence is back.’
Guardiola has also been impressed by Jack Grealish in pre-season as he bids to put the disappointment of being left out of England’s Euro 2024 squad behind him.
‘What I’ve seen so far, I love it,” Guardiola said. “Every training session, his commitment and his trying. Against Barcelona he had five or six shots and was aggressive with the ball. His quality will do the rest.
‘Hopefully he can sustain it until the end of the season and compete like everyone with one place for the starting XI. That depends on him.’