“You can criticise me incredibly” – Pep Guardiola takes aim at critics after consequential West Ham draw | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola spoke at length after his side’s title chances suffered a significant hit courtesy of a 1-1 draw with West Ham on Saturday night.

Konstantinos Mavropanos cancelled out Bernardo Silva‘s stupendous opener as City were held to a second successive league draw to fall nine points behind leaders Arsenal, who have played an extra game but avoided a late scare against Everton to walk away with a 2-0 win on Saturday evening thanks to goals from Viktor Gyökeres and Max Dowman.

City have a difficult fixture calendar over the next month as they remain in the running in all four competitions, next coming up against Real Madrid in the return leg of their UEFA Champions League Round of 16 tie at the Etihad Stadium next week.

The Blues have left it too little, too late to hijack Arsenal’s lead at the top of the tree and after being held to another draw this weekend, Mikel Arteta and co have one hand on what will be Arsenal’s first Premier League title in 22 years.

What did Pep Guardiola make of Manchester City’s performance against West Ham?

Guardiola watched on from the stands at the London Stadium as the Catalan served the first of a two-game touchline ban after picking up his sixth domestic yellow card of the 2025-26 season in the FA Cup against Newcastle United last week.

On watching City’s 1-1 draw with West Ham from the stands, the Catalan said: “It’s perfect, I love to be there,” in conversation with TNT Sports. “I will complain more to the referees to get more yellow cards to go in the stands. Next time, it will be three games (banned). I will try it again.

“The position is much better. So, Howard Webb, educate your referees because I’m coming,” the Manchester City manager added in a jibe towards referees in his post-match press conference from the London Stadium.

On speaking to assistant coach Pepijn Lijnders ‘a lot’ over the course of 90 minutes against West Ham, Guardiola added: “Yeah, we charged the (phone) battery before to full.” Assessing his side’s display, he said: “We were much, much better in all departments. I’m so proud,” in an interview with beIN SPORTS.

What is the wider context of Manchester City’s 1-1 draw away at West Ham?

Guardiola was as unserious as it gets in his post-match media duties and when probed on the result against West Ham, the 55-year-old held his hand up and seemingly aimed a sarcastic jibe at those who have recently criticised him for his team selections.

“Bad selection. Now you can criticise me incredibly for the selection. Now I deserve it,” the Manchester City manager, who admitted he possibly should have decided against taking Antoine Semenyo off against West Ham, added.

On whether his players knew of Arsenal’s late win over Everton ahead of kick-off against West Ham, Guardiola added: “I was taking a beer before the game so I didn’t see the players before. So I don’t know. They were in the warm-up and I didn’t see them. Of course, it’s better if they (Arsenal) didn’t win but it can happen.”

Manchester City and Guardiola must forego their crushing draw in the south as they regroup for next week’s monumental UEFA Champions League Round of 16 return leg against Real Madrid, looking to overturn a three-goal deficit after being taken to the cleaners by hat-trick hero Federico Valverde at the Santiago Bernabeu earlier this week.