Pep Guardiola insists attack is Manchester City's best form of defence
Saturday 17 December 2016 13:06, UK
Pep Guardiola has maintained that attack is the best form of attack for Manchester City.
City beat Watford 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium last time out but before that had been defeated by both champions Leicester City and Chelsea.
Ahead of their clash with Arsenal on Super Sunday, City sit fourth in the table, seven points behind leaders Chelsea and one point behind both Arsenal and Liverpool.
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Guardiola dropped John Stones for the mid-week victory over the Hornets but maintains that attack is his preferred method of defence.
"If we play well, we are going to defend. If we are lazy and we are not strong enough, they have the quality," said Guardiola.
"Arsenal always have a huge quality. They buy the right people, good players. They have fast players up front, they can defend well, use perfectly the counter-attack - a good team. We have a lot of respect.
"I like to have a clean sheet but I know that a clean sheet is not just as a consequence of the back four.
"The players who ran the most in the last game were David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne. Kevin, Raheem (Sterling) and David helped us to make the clean sheet possible.
"Now we have to create a good build-up, a good moment with the ball, to help our back guys, to help our strikers to score more goals. That is what we have to try in the future."
Heading into their clash with the Gunners, City are without Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho through suspension, while the club confirmed on Friday that Ilkay Gundogan has suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury.
