Pep Guardiola predicted that facing Everton would be very difficult, and the match would take place next Sunday at Goodison Park.
Relegation-threatened Everton scored a stunning 5-1 win over Brighton last week to lift themselves out of the bottom three, but they are still battling to avoid relegation from the Premier League.
Therefore, the City coach expects that facing Sean Dyche’s team will be difficult, especially as it is confined between the two Champions League semi-final matches against Real Madrid.
“Goodison Park for all my six seasons here has always been very difficult, because of the atmosphere, the fans and now they have Sean Dyche,” Guardiola said.
He continued, “Things will also be difficult because this confrontation is between the two Champions League semi-finals, but my thinking is only about Everton, nothing more than that, and we have to focus only on this match.”
And the City coach added: “We have been playing for 11 months in the English Premier League, and I do not want to distract myself and think about the Real Madrid match. We do not have much time because we play on Sunday and the priority of thinking is at Goodison Park.”
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He pointed out: “Everton has a great history, and to play against Brighton at home is a difficult thing. Despite that, they won five, and it was a really amazing result, not only for the sake of arranging the table, but because Brighton is in a good condition, and this did not affect Everton, who won by a big score.”
-And Pep continued: “Everything can happen, as Everton scores the first goal in the first minute at Brighton Stadium and gets an amazing result, and this shows that every team will play for something special in the coming period, and it will be difficult.”
He stressed, “The defensive and physical structure they have at Everton is really good. Everything can happen in football, but at the same time we know exactly what we are playing for. We will analyze what we have to do to beat them.”
And the Catalan stressed: “We will definitely play until June 3, next Wednesday. We have to win because we deserve to qualify. We definitely have six matches, maybe seven, not many. They are only two or three weeks until the end of the season, so we will do everything we can.”
As for Arsenal’s competition for the Premier League title, the coach added that he expects Mikel Arteta’s team to win the remaining matches.
“They will definitely win the three games they have left,” he said.
Guardiola concluded his remarks: “I would like Arsenal to lose points in the matches they will play against Brighton, Forest and Wolverhampton, but with long weeks of preparation, they will achieve this with nine points.”
