Pep Guardiola responds to Myles Lewis-Skelly 'zen' celebration & issues apology | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola smirked when told that Arsenal's Myles Lewis-Skelly had mimicked Erling Haaland's 'zen' goal celebration after scoring against Manchester City, offering up one of his sly "that's good" responses.

The Spaniard saw his Premier League champions implode against a team that has been their main title rivals for the past two seasons.

City gifted Arsenal an early lead, as John Stones' risky pass to Manuel Akanji led to Martin Odegaard's opener, but looked to be getting back on track when Haaland powered a brilliant header beyond the reach of David Raya in the home goal.

But a deflected Thomas Partey effort was followed up by goals for Lewis-Skelly, Kai Havertz and Ethan Nwaneri, handing City a 5-1 thrashing that once again exposed the defensive frailties that have dogged Guardiola's team in recent months.

In his post-match duties, Guardiola was asked about Lewis-Skelly's celebration, which appeared to take another dig at Haaland after Arsenal defender Gabriel had celebrated Odegaard's goal by getting in the Norwegian goal-machine's face.

"Oh I didn't see it... I didn't see them do that... that's good. That's good," Guardiola remarked. "So, he did Haaland's celebration? They have done it? Ah, that's good. That's good."

He then turned to City's media officer, perhaps hinting at the tone of his reply, and said: "Did you like my answer?"

Erling Haaland was targeted by a gloating Gabriel throughout the game / Alex Pantling/GettyImages

Guadiola then spoke of his disappointment at City's display, admitting that his pride was "hurt" and that he could only apologise to the supporters who had made the long trip down to the capital.

"It can be fragile because it happens so many times," he said. "But we have a duty to learn and there are always margins to get better. It’s happened all season, we are giving away too many things, we are aware this cannot happen, but it happened.

"It is hard to put into words straight after a game like that. Pride hurts. Sorry to the fans that have travelled to come and watch that. How we played in the last 30 minutes was not acceptable. Personally and collectively, it’s not us.

"It is not nice to be involved in that when you know it’s not your team in those situations. We were in the game and it was a swinging point. It swung the wrong way for us. I am angry, upset personally and collectively about how the game finished. There are a lot of different things that I still haven’t figured out as to why it hasn’t clicked. The heart’s there, the passion’s there; everyone’s got the right intention. We all need to stick together.

He added: "We reacted really well, and we played with personality and we defended so good and then with the ball we were a threat but unfortunately after the second happened, again many times we had the momentum. For the deflection and in other situations we conceded the goals.

“You have to overcome [it], you cannot lose the control, it’s 90/95 minutes. You cannot finish in the way we played, we could’ve scored three more but the team has to be stable it doesn’t matter what happened.”