0:07

You're listening to the Sky Sports

0:09

Football podcast. Manchester City's Title Challenge

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Continued on Saturday Night Football against

0:14

Wolves. Here's how we saw things

0:16

at full time at the Etihad

0:18

Stadium. Manchester

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city window margin is

0:24

like take a significant

0:27

try to consecutively title

0:29

and four goals and

0:31

home run ragged to

0:33

those goals for the

0:36

penalty spot. Also. Had

0:38

a. Problem

0:40

model born after a beautiful boy

0:42

for bill voted it was very

0:44

much earning a hole in his

0:47

day. Really know their as cable

0:49

that sorta thing. The one blemish

0:51

the Manchester City the goal and

0:54

they conceded to way But in

0:56

terms of what Arsenal did earlier,

0:58

Manchester City go one better that

1:01

he still hold all the cards

1:03

in this title race. Manchester City

1:05

by Wolves long. Are

1:07

we can hear from the man and the

1:09

moment I'll in Holland joins is now adding

1:12

Thank you so much for your time today!

1:14

Let's talk first of all about what it

1:16

means to their the club to get less

1:18

result, to stay within touching distance of our

1:21

snow and to keep the league title in

1:23

your own hands. Guess.

1:26

Is that the last week

1:28

in Baldwin three boys are

1:30

get back in and relax.

1:33

And. Everything. So yeah. keep going. Three

1:35

points and born on folks on

1:37

next. Yeah. Relax and tell until

1:39

next weekend. But in terms of your

1:42

your own performance, l and it's just

1:44

incredible numbers. Once again, you're on twenty

1:46

five Premier League goals for this season

1:48

is the first time you've scored four

1:51

Premier League goals and again you're wrong.

1:53

Twenty five, Five player and you're near

1:55

as challenger for that the Golden boot.

1:57

This is just in an incredible season.

2:00

once again. It's almost unusual

2:02

when you're not putting up

2:04

incredible numbers. I

2:07

think that's the first one I said there, that's the season bar. Thank

2:09

you for that. Not bad, 25 goals

2:12

this season. Yeah, thanks for

2:14

that and we keep going.

2:17

Yeah, it's been incredible. Michael

2:20

was just talking there about how you find

2:22

as a team, the motivation

2:24

after winning the treble to go

2:26

again, but how do you individually

2:28

find that internal motivation to keep

2:31

pushing for more incredible

2:33

numbers? Yeah,

2:36

I've got a not so

2:38

bad manager who pushes me and

2:42

obviously look at the plays around me. I've said it so

2:44

many times before, without them it would not be possible. I

2:46

tried to develop every

2:48

single day, I had some problems there and there,

2:50

but let's not focus on them, focus on the

2:52

positive things and look ahead, look

2:55

to the next one. We've got four finals left

2:58

for our season and we're

3:00

going to go for it and try not

3:03

to think and focus on them.

3:06

Erlend, Jamie Redknapp, congratulations for fantastic goals.

3:08

I want to talk about the second

3:10

and the fourth one, especially the second

3:12

one. Talk to us about that leap,

3:14

the athleticism you've shown. In

3:17

England we say it's like a salmon the way you

3:19

rose. Yeah,

3:24

that's a beautiful goal

3:27

and I

3:30

think my father is going to be happy with that

3:32

one. He's been talking about trying

3:34

to hit the ball at the highest

3:36

points and that's exactly what I did. So, beautiful

3:39

goal and after that

3:41

nice celebration so yeah, I enjoyed that one.

3:43

Is that something you're working on? Because I've

3:46

always thought you were a fantastic header ball,

3:48

but you are even still trying to improve

3:50

those little details so you can score

3:52

even more headers? Yeah, of

3:54

course and I'm scoring

3:56

more headers as well. So,

3:58

yeah, I tried to. to develop and

4:03

keep going. And that fourth

4:05

goal, an important goal because obviously they

4:07

just scored, maybe a few nerves,

4:09

3-1, they feel like maybe they're back in the

4:11

game. How important was not just the goal but

4:13

also a fantastic finish from your point of view.

4:15

Once you got it back on that left foot

4:17

you just delivered it into the far corner. Yes,

4:21

it was a beautiful goal I

4:23

have to say that. So

4:26

yes, I don't know what more I can

4:28

say. It was a

4:30

nice goal and a great ball for Phil. So,

4:33

focus on the next one. Erling,

4:36

could I just ask you about goal

4:38

difference? Obviously, Underman Cini, we won the

4:40

league on goal difference. Is that something

4:42

Pep keeps reminding you of? No,

4:48

first of all it's about winning the games

4:51

but of course you want to have the

4:53

best possible goal difference as

4:56

you can no matter what.

4:59

But let's not think about

5:01

that. Think about Fulham. Potentially that

5:03

was a high pressure, nervy

5:05

evening. How did your team manage to

5:08

make it look so comfortable? It

5:11

looks like for the result but it was not. We

5:13

had the right moment. At the end we couldn't get

5:15

the chances. In the transition we

5:17

were not really

5:20

precise in the last pass. But Erling,

5:26

back to the business and penalties

5:28

are guaranteed. And the second

5:30

goal and the fourth is unbelievable.

5:33

But everyone was there and we

5:35

know what we were playing for so three games left and now

5:39

it's coming in

5:41

three games in one week and all the

5:43

season in this week. And you talked about

5:45

transitions there. Were they a massive threat for you

5:48

today? You won it high and in

5:50

so many good positions, particularly in the early part

5:52

of the match? The

5:54

first two actions with Kevin, Kevin was a little

5:57

bit anxious in the first action. He was alone,

5:59

he didn't realise. and could be more

6:02

calm in that position. The first half was not really

6:04

really good. With 3-0 it was

6:06

not really really good. We lost

6:08

a lot of simple balls. The players know for many

6:10

many years that the wood players is a player who

6:12

is as simple as that don't lose the

6:14

ball. We

6:17

lost a simple one. They want to tackle teams

6:19

like the quality all

6:21

of them they have because they have a good

6:23

presence, really good. 4-0 is a

6:26

really good manager and the pace they have

6:28

is a really really good team. We

6:32

make goals in the right moment especially the

6:35

fourth, 3-1 everything can happen. Long time still,

6:37

men to men, they are more aggressive in

6:39

the second half than the first. But

6:41

incredible pass from field control and finishing for N Erling was

6:43

over. You mentioned

6:45

Erling Harland a couple of times there. Obviously

6:48

he scored four goals. He obviously missed a

6:50

couple of matches after Real

6:52

Madrid and he seems to have

6:54

come back looking fresher, happier, stronger.

6:57

Do you sense that yourself? Well

7:00

the 20 minutes he played in the

7:03

forest was really good and today

7:05

as well. We

7:08

won but the season was long and so tall an

7:10

injury. To become the Euro is not

7:12

like Jolyana or Phil or Jeremy. This

7:17

type of play is in

7:19

nothing, it has to perform. Welcome

7:23

to the right moment I would say. We

7:28

arrived here all together because Kevin was

7:30

five months out and Kevin was early

7:32

more than two and the effort from

7:34

Julia and Phil for all the people

7:36

telling me and Jug, not much

7:39

but all the players were there was

7:41

really good decision. Not happy when he

7:43

came off though, was he Erling? What

7:45

was that? I believe it

7:47

was a first error, I understand

7:49

the decision of the referee but sometimes in the

7:51

long balls all the time he wins the position,

7:53

they pull him and he never falls and

7:56

he is a real bit. I say never fall, never

7:58

fall. with that

8:01

position a little bit because in

8:04

that situation, is him doing this his

8:06

fault all the time? But

8:08

yeah, it was like that. So

8:11

last question, one more home game

8:13

to go, is the key to

8:15

get there on the final day

8:17

with your destiny still in your own hands?

8:20

No, four. What happened in Biola two seasons

8:22

ago? Yeah, the same, yeah. Had

8:25

to win top third against Fulham, always have been

8:27

difficult. Of course, always this because

8:30

all difference is

8:32

not possible, so we cannot draw. And I

8:34

think it must have for the way they're

8:36

playing. Since winter time,

8:39

winter break is incredible,

8:41

the consistent and the quality they have. But

8:44

there's no hands. So three games, we have to win

8:46

the first second and hopefully we can arrive. I will

8:50

sign her in a contract if you want,

8:52

arrive in the last game in destiny in

8:54

our hands. Well, Gary, city in kind of

8:57

running mode, Erling Harland in top gear, probably

8:59

one of the biggest challenges you can get

9:01

in football. What would you say about how

9:03

your team met the challenge? I

9:06

thought we damaged ourself mostly.

9:08

I think the

9:11

first goal obviously is not really

9:15

our doing or our error, I don't think.

9:18

Second goal, we lose the ball really cheaply. I think

9:23

the last goal, unbelievable where we lose

9:25

the ball when we have the ball

9:27

in the back under no pressure. Yeah,

9:33

nothing really, they gave everything.

9:38

We spoke before about if you make errors

9:40

against these, they'll punish you. We made too

9:42

many errors with the ball, couple

9:44

of errors when

9:46

we went to press and we didn't go all

9:48

the way in. And we were very clinicals managed

9:50

to punish us on them. So we

9:53

fall short today. I'm disappointed with

9:56

how we fell short because there was a lot of effort and

9:58

yeah. a lot

10:00

of determination, but we made some key

10:02

errors against the side, as good as this

10:04

you can't make. Yeah, I mean you're touching it there, was

10:07

it a real feature of the game, certainly first half, that

10:09

actually it felt like they were more

10:11

of a threat when you had the ball? Yeah,

10:15

I thought, you

10:17

know, at 1-0, I don't think

10:19

it's a penalty, the first one, but at 1-0

10:21

we had a real good spell then with the

10:24

ball, really good, really good, long spell, played

10:27

a couple of moments for chaining up and around the goal and

10:31

if they hadn't been given that start at that point it

10:33

maybe would have felt a bit different, but obviously the fact

10:36

that they were in front, the fact that we didn't

10:38

manage to make anything of that little spell that we

10:40

had and then we give them

10:42

a really soft second goal, it becomes very very

10:45

difficult there obviously, but loads

10:47

of little things today that have meant that we

10:49

weren't able to trouble the best team in

10:52

Europe too much, but as

10:54

I say, it is the ultimate test and we

10:57

fell short, but we get ready for Crystal Palace.

10:59

So you've touched on it a couple of times

11:01

already, how did you see that, the first penalty?

11:03

Yeah, the incident, I think, Yassidos sort of coming

11:06

togethers all the time, like Guardiola

11:08

has already had his shot and his momentum

11:10

creates the contact with Rejan as much as

11:12

Rejan, so I don't think, I

11:14

don't know what Rejan can do in that instant really, I

11:16

mean apart from move out

11:18

of Guardiola's way and make sure there's no

11:20

contact created at all, it's like Guardiola's

11:22

swinging leg that sort of creates the

11:25

contact, not Rejan. So yeah,

11:28

I was surprised, I was surprised at

11:31

how quickly it was given, I thought it was a really poor decision

11:34

and obviously I don't expect it to be overturned

11:36

because there will be an argument

11:39

to say that it wasn't clear and obvious, so yeah,

11:41

but disappointed with that one, I thought it was a poor decision,

11:43

so I'm happy to accept that my team had the stuff

11:47

we did today, some of it was poor, but

11:49

I think that part of the officiating was really bad. Yeah,

11:52

and I suppose is the key there, I mean sometimes it

11:54

seems hard to complain I guess when it's 5-1, but

11:57

is the key, first goal here is everything.

12:00

it and that's the first goal. I

12:02

have no idea if it had made any difference, if we'd have made

12:05

as many errors as we did it wouldn't have made

12:07

any difference, we'd have probably lost 4-1. But

12:10

it's a key part of the game of

12:12

course and I

12:14

didn't expect it to be given when I was watching it.

12:16

I thought, ah that's not a penalty, he's missed his shot,

12:18

he's gone over the bar and he's collided with Rayann and

12:21

I don't think

12:23

many of those get given as penalties. Second

12:26

one probably is a penalty, I thought, Nels

12:28

made a bit of contact with Harland

12:31

but I thought once it wasn't given

12:33

really surprised it was overturned because there

12:36

wasn't much contact from Nelson I didn't think

12:38

so. You see Harland go over and sort

12:40

of high five Nelson as if to say

12:42

not much in it and we'll carry on. But

12:46

they felt it was, they reached

12:48

the right decision on that one, I'm just

12:50

not comfortable with how really. So

12:52

right, a bit of confusion still for you

12:54

about where that high bar

12:56

is. Yeah, I'm not sure,

12:58

I think we're really unlucky

13:01

to have conceded both. You

13:03

shouldn't give the first one in my opinion, the

13:06

second one I'm happy for you to give on field because

13:08

if you see a small bit of contact Nels has

13:11

managed to sort of do enough

13:13

to put Harland off and affect his stride.

13:17

Is it clear and obvious, is there like a

13:19

real massive contact from Nels that makes it

13:21

obvious to overturn it? I didn't think there was

13:23

but obviously I may be biased on that, I

13:25

am in charge of Wolves. Maybe

13:28

this is a bit of a stretch but do you think your team

13:31

missed having you on the touchline today and how did you find

13:33

that? I

13:35

don't know, really I don't know. We still

13:37

showed loads of bits where we looked like

13:40

us. I thought

13:42

there was another weird incident where Akanji

13:44

seemed to punch the ball away and I'm not sure

13:46

if it was checked or when he was on the

13:48

floor. It was a really weird incident that maybe would

13:50

have given us an opportunity to get back to 4-2.

13:56

As always with the officials, I can't today because I'm not

13:58

allowed to speak to them. I'd just like some

14:01

clarification on how we end up where we

14:03

end up, no sort of complaint about the

14:05

outcome or we

14:07

were well beaten by an excellent team and we

14:09

didn't quite reach our level which we would need

14:11

to to trouble them. But

14:14

yeah, they didn't seem to be much made of the Akanji

14:16

handball apart from our fans screaming for it. It looked like

14:18

handball to me when I watched it back that there was

14:20

a movement towards the ball and punched it away. It wouldn't

14:23

have got us any points but I'm just

14:25

keen to make sure that the decisions

14:27

and the way we arrive

14:29

at them is correct. I mean it has been a theme

14:32

of your season really, the decisions that have gone

14:34

against you. Do you feel a

14:36

bit, are you still feeling a bit exhausted talking about it?

14:38

No, no, no, no, because I don't think they're a big

14:41

talking point today. Obviously I have to talk about them because

14:43

they happen in the game but no, the

14:45

story today is that Manchester City were

14:47

excellent, clinical. We made too

14:49

many errors and we needed

14:51

to perform at 100% to give

14:53

ourselves a chance and effort

14:56

and determination wise we did but we made

14:58

too many errors so yeah, the

15:00

officials haven't cost us anything today. They've done their

15:02

best to make some calls and I

15:05

don't agree with some of them but that's

15:07

just how it goes. You can keep up

15:09

to date with all the latest from the Premier

15:11

League by using the free Sky Sports app. You'll

15:14

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it, just head to your app store,

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search for Sky Sports, download it and

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away you go. Now

15:27

back to the Sky Sports Football

15:29

Podcast. Manchester

15:32

City, one point behind Arsenal, they have

15:34

a game in hand over them. That

15:36

goal difference that Guardiola said was impossible

15:39

to overhaul is six between them at

15:41

the moment. Three games

15:43

left to play for Manchester City, two

15:45

games left for Arsenal. Yes, difficult but

15:48

maybe not quite impossible for them but

15:51

we're back. We're back to the predictor

15:53

table, we're back to trying to work out what's

15:55

going to happen. We're back to

15:57

the Optus Supercomputer which says a 33% chance

16:00

for Arsenal twice as likely

16:02

that Manchester City are going to win

16:04

it and so we're looking at

16:06

the remaining games. You

16:09

can make a case for some of these fixtures being

16:12

tricky, particularly when you factor in the

16:14

stage of the season that we're at

16:16

and all kinds of things like player

16:19

mentality or nerves or just all those

16:21

small things that can come into it.

16:23

Yeah, of course. I mean, when

16:25

you come in to all the end of the

16:27

season, you do think differently. I don't care what

16:30

anyone says. Early in the season, you know, if

16:32

you lose points or lose ground, you can make

16:34

it back. But these are the games are the

16:36

most important and that's where Man City seem to

16:38

thrive. If you was asking me Spurs two

16:41

months ago, I'd be saying this is

16:43

a very difficult game. But now the way Spurs

16:45

have sort of lost a little bit of form,

16:47

it's still the game I'd be looking at as

16:50

a player thinking, Spurs away. Our

16:52

record's not great there. They've

16:55

lost their last four in the Premier League

16:57

at the top of the Montspur Stadium. Yeah.

16:59

And I think the way that Spurs play,

17:01

the way they want to push really high,

17:03

really good on turn over, it's sort of

17:05

it should be an interesting game. I don't

17:07

want to rule out Fulham as well. What

17:09

Fulham are doing this season has been excellent.

17:11

You'd think Man City would have enough to

17:13

get through that. But if I'm a Man

17:15

City player, a Man City fan, I'm looking

17:17

at the Spurs away as the

17:19

most difficult one out of those three games. The

17:21

hard thing is we've seen the movie before. We

17:24

know the ending. Normally they run

17:26

away and they win it. It doesn't matter if it's

17:29

the last minute, they can win it in all different

17:31

ways like they did against Aston

17:33

Villa in those last few moments as well. They're

17:36

not easy. They're tricky games. I remember you

17:38

were with us in the occasion where they

17:40

were playing

17:43

Aston Villa at home and they were two-nil down

17:45

at half time. And they obviously

17:47

win it in

17:50

the end. They're

17:52

tricky games. They really are, but

17:55

it's Manchester City. What

17:57

Mikel Arteta has to do is just got

17:59

to get through it. keep them honest. They've got to

18:01

make sure they just win their games, Magician out of

18:03

the way, it's obviously not going to be an easy

18:05

game and they just get them to

18:07

that last day of the season and if you

18:10

can even do it an ask the question because

18:12

you never know anything is still possible. Yeah

18:14

that game against Everton a few

18:16

weeks ago when we were talking about this was Everton

18:18

might need to win this one there could be a

18:20

lot resting on it but now they know they're safe.

18:23

Maybe we were looking at that in a

18:25

slightly in a slightly different way but that

18:27

doesn't necessarily mean it's easier if Everton are

18:29

going to be relaxed and kind of playing

18:32

for and enjoying their football at that

18:34

stage. Manchester United away is an interesting

18:36

one because what we've said about

18:38

Manchester United all season is as

18:41

a team they might not be performing

18:43

to their best ability but as

18:45

individuals they have game changes. And

18:47

obviously you just you go into that game Arsenal

18:49

Man United you know it's a big game and

18:52

all the players when I get up for big

18:54

games no matter where you are in the table.

18:58

I just think with Arsenal now though

19:00

there were different Arsenal. When we

19:02

looked at Arsenal last season it was

19:04

more of okay they playing a certain

19:06

style and it was high press and

19:08

they sort of I won't say one-dimensional

19:10

but a lot in their games you

19:12

could pick exactly what it was trying

19:14

to do. This Arsenal team now are

19:16

different they will concede possession if you

19:18

need to I've seen it at Man

19:20

City and they can counter

19:22

attack if you need to they can also

19:24

handle the ball as well so both

19:28

teams will probably win all three you know if we're

19:30

at the end of the season. There's two interesting subplots

19:34

to a certain extent and I'm

19:36

looking at that game with Manchester United

19:39

away for Arsenal now Conspiracy Fierce will

19:41

say that what

19:43

Manchester United would much prefer

19:45

Arsenal to win it to

19:47

Manchester City Tottenham Hotspur are

19:49

obviously not going to want to see Arsenal

19:52

win the league then you start

19:54

to question football integrity are they actually going to

19:56

try and I've had so many people asking me

19:58

well Tottenham are not going to they're not

20:00

going to want to try too hard and obviously hand

20:02

the title to Arsenal. I've been in that position as

20:04

a player on the last day of the season. When

20:07

you're trying to, you know, you get asked questions, it's

20:09

Blackburn we're playing against Liverpool, and everyone was talking about

20:11

that occasion where you caution, you know, you're not going

20:13

to be trying too hard. We want

20:15

Blackburn to win the title, not Manchester United.

20:17

But your integrity as a player is questioned

20:19

all the time in those sort of situations.

20:21

You scored. Well, I want to win. Kelly,

20:24

you want to win, you know, because it's your personal

20:27

pride. You know, if you're a Tottenham player and you're

20:29

playing against Manchester City, you're on show that game's going to

20:31

be on Sky Sports, you're going to want to show your best.

20:34

You know, you've had a little bit of stick, like if you've

20:36

got anything about, you will give 100 per cent, you

20:38

know, and, you know, that can always

20:40

happen. So that's going to

20:42

be such an interesting game with both of

20:45

them. You know, Manchester United and Tottenham are

20:47

massive games because you're putting the players in

20:49

a position that makes them really uncomfortable because

20:51

they know if they win, they're going to

20:53

hand the title, pretty much hand the title

20:55

to their nearest, to their rivals. So, all

20:58

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21:19

When you look at the reply for

21:22

Wolves, the goal to make it 3-1

21:24

from Juan Mica, it's almost

21:26

that the story of Wolves season, what

21:28

if he'd been available? What if they

21:30

hadn't had the key injuries that they've

21:32

had this season? Yeah, along with Neto.

21:35

He's a real quality player. I mean,

21:37

obviously, he's 12th Premier League goal this

21:39

season. And they have missed him. Inky

21:41

areas are so clinical. He's

21:43

missed the pace of Neto on that win

21:46

as well. Obviously, he's seen that

21:48

in the return fixture. But I just think

21:50

he brings something different to this team where

21:52

he can run in behind, he's really calm,

21:54

good in possession and he gets goals. So

21:57

had they had him sit for the whole

21:59

season, I'm... would have done even

22:01

better, but let's be honest, look at all

22:03

seasons, they've been outstanding even with their injuries.

22:05

I think O'Neill's done a brilliant job and

22:07

he'll be looking for the future now. It's

22:10

already better than last season for them, don't

22:12

you? Yeah, absolutely. 18 more goals, more wins,

22:14

more points than

22:17

last season. Yeah, I think Micah's

22:19

just summed it up perfectly. I mean, the other

22:21

player, I think Netto is on

22:23

his day as good as

22:25

any Premier League player. I really believe that and they've

22:28

missed him for such a long spell now and

22:30

I just hope he gets back as a

22:32

sustained runner football because he's got so much

22:35

to offer. He's an incredible player, they

22:37

haven't had that luck and if anybody else hasn't

22:39

got that type of player, it would affect them

22:41

so much. You take no other guard or someone

22:43

like that out of the Arsenal team and see

22:46

the effect it would have on them. But

22:48

Gary never really complains, he gets on with

22:50

it and he's done an outstanding job. So

22:52

I think in the... if we consider his

22:55

first full season there, I think he can be

22:57

absolutely thrilled. Make sure they kick on next year

23:00

and get the right players in that are just

23:02

going to help him. So if they do have

23:04

injury problems, it doesn't seem to affect him as

23:06

much. I think it's just what can they hold

23:08

on to? You know, this Wolves team have performed

23:10

so well this season, a lot of people are

23:13

going to be looking at Huang, a lot of

23:15

people are going to be looking at Netto as

23:17

well. Kunya. Yeah, Kunya has been outstanding too. So

23:19

it's just they're now got a really good team

23:21

together. It's whether... how long they can keep that

23:23

together. Thanks

23:31

for listening to the Sky Sports Football

23:34

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