Manchester City are experts at reeling in opponents when all seems lost in the hunt for the title

Usually, this would be taking on even more importance than it already is. A tense title showdown without Manchester City nipping at Liverpool’s heels or defending them feels out of place.

But Jurgen Klopp goes to the Etihad Stadium with other things on his mind this year, the seven-point gap to fourth-placed Tottenham instead of the silver medal.

For City this is uncharted territory under Pep Guardiola, a non-Liverpool rival going for the big time and doing so in a way that looks set to lift the Premier League in May.

Arsenal is new to all of this and there are two ways to look at it. Inexperience in these pieces of matches is something that cannot be bought, that know-how to immerse your head at the right moment on the line. But then again, Guardiola fears that Arsenal’s exuberant naiveté spells danger.

That they have not won one as a group before worries him. The hunger to do it, the desire shown in those recent late winners who remember City’s first title win in 2018. He’s spent much of the last few months reminding his players that there’s a team in North London who naturally craves this. . further.

But Arsenal have something that can be just as valuable as experience: a hunger for success.

Pep Guardiola hopes Erling Haaland can get rid of his groin problem to be a City star

And that doesn’t allow for the fact that apart from bringing Mikel Arteta together for a group that desperately wants to succeed, to make history, he has also made them an exceptional football team. Quick and direct, with goals everywhere.

But then there’s that element of City’s muscle memory that means people just can’t shake the feeling that they will prevail.

When they won the last 14 games of the 2018-19 season to hunt down Liverpool in the most exciting title race in years, or when they lost just once since November to hold them off last season.

Guardiola’s other two titles, in 2018 and 2021, rose at a gallop, but they all had the same long, somewhat relentless winning streaks.

They set the longest run in Premier League history (18) since August five years ago, effectively ending the season right there. He won all 14 finals four years ago, 15 in a row two years ago and 12 in a row last season.

His longest run this season is three. With 11 games remaining, starting with Liverpool but also Arsenal and Chelsea, it makes you wonder.

There was certainly more fluidity in his game in the weeks leading up to the international break, although that is now tempered with the news that Phil Foden faces weeks of surgery to remove his appendix.

City lost just once in the league from November until the end of the season to keep Liverpool at bay.

City are also hoping that Erling Haaland makes a speedy recovery from the groin injury he sustained during an FA Cup tie with Burnley. Haaland traveled back to Manchester earlier this week with sports therapist Mario Pafundi and trained alone.

Guardiola has trusted a team established in previous clashes. He cuts and swaps for months before making it to a preferred XI, so any fitness concerns during this period, particularly for the likes of Haaland and Foden, are less than ideal when he’s trying to build momentum.

However, it is tight there. Tighter than it might appear on paper. City are eight points behind but with one game less and the Gunners to meet at the Etihad Stadium on April 26.

They still need billiards, but they’ll think it’s not second to none. If things go like this over the next month, it will be time to put Guardiola’s thesis to the test: what is important, experience or hunger?