Pep Guardiola suggested a way to stop Erling Haaland... before predicting it will not happen on Wednesday.
Arsenal will likely have to stop the 48-goal striker from adding to his tally if they are to come away with any points from their top-of-the-table encounter, and Manchester City have had experience of coming up against the prolific No.9. On their way to the Champions League final in 2021, they stopped Haaland from scoring for Dortmund in both legs of their quarter-final.
"From what he has shown in his career, it is difficult but as a team [you have] to have him involved as little as possible. When we played against him when he was at Borussia Dortmund, we tried to have 70- 80 per cent ball possession," he said.
Also read: Every word from Pep Guardiola ahead of Arsenal clash
"When we have the ball, we have more chances but the game we are going to play tomorrow will be a lot of transitions and duels. They plan to play a game so aggressive, almost man-to-man so the way you do the process is difficult."
Guardiola does not expect either team to be able to dominate possession on Wednesday as City and Arsenal are both used to winning the ball back off opponents and keeping it. It is set up to be decisive in the title race, although there is the potential for other twists and turns.
"It's really important," he said. "Not decisive because there are still many tough games on both sides and there are more to play, but we cannot deny how important it is."
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