Marc Guehi dismisses talk that Manchester City were expected to hammer Burnley
By Ian Parker, Press Association
Marc Guehi believes anyone who had expected Manchester City to brush aside Burnley with a lop-sided scoreline as they went top of the Premier League on Wednesday night “doesn’t know football”.
Erling Haaland’s fifth-minute goal was enough for Pep Guardiola’s side to take a 1-0 win at Turf Moor that relegated Burnley and put City top of the standings on goals scored, ending Arsenal’s 200-day reign three days after they beat the Gunners 2-1 at the Etihad.
But while many had been expecting City to rack up the goals against Burnley and boost their goal difference in the fight against Arsenal – a prospect that seemed on after Haaland’s early strike – City were frustrated as only one of their 28 attempts on goal found the net.
“Everyone thinks these games are easy, when a lot of emotion and focus went into the last game against Arsenal,” Guehi said.
“You’re playing a team that’s fighting for their lives, it’s not going to be easy. Whoever thought it was going to be easy clearly doesn’t know football. I’m glad everyone did their jobs, dug in. The most important thing was just to get the win.”
With five league games left to play City are top of the table for the first time since August, but Guehi insisted he was not thinking about that for now.
With an FA Cup semi-final against Southampton up next for Guardiola’s men, Arsenal will play two league games before City’s next Premier League assignment, away to Everton on May 4.
“I think it really is our priority to just focus on ourselves,” Guehi said. “We can only control what we can control, so we played the game against Arsenal, we were able to control that game and now it’s just up to us to make sure that we do the best in the games that we have.”
With City unable to add to Haaland’s early goal, Guehi and Abdukodir Khusanov needed to keep the backdoor shut and preserve City’s win, ensuring Burnley never really troubled Gianluigi Donnarumma.
In the absence of the injured Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol, their partnership has flourished in recent wins over Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal.
“It’s really nice to play with Khusa,” Guehi said of the Uzbekistan defender. “He’s so good, he’s so fast, a really intelligent defender.
“I think we complement each other really well, but I think I’ve learned a lot from anyone that I’ve played with at the football club so far, whether it’s in training or in games. Hopefully, whoever it is playing at the back is able to carry on getting clean sheets and winning games.”
Guehi also put to bed the notion that Khusanov, 22, is yet to master English a little over a year after joining from Lens.
“He can speak English!” he laughed. “Khusa can speak English, his English is good. He played in France so he can also communicate in French on the pitch as well, which helps.
“But I think when you just have a good understanding of football, sometimes you don’t even need to talk on the pitch, you just know where each other are.”
