“Must-win” - Guardiola describes clash with Spurs
Pep Guardiola is looking to win his fourth-straight Premier League title, a feat that has never happened in the history of English top-flight football.
Guardiola, who has only lost the league title in three of his 16 years as a senior coach, will also be setting a new milestone for himself, having never won four straight titles at any point in his storied career.
He is aware of the sentiments of some Spurs' fans who want to ruin Arsenal's chances but he is more aware of Spurs' manager Ange Postecoglou's mindset towards the game.
"Real success looks like trophies. Anything else in between, bragging rights, whatever, it is absolutely meaningless to me,” the Australian said in his pre-match press conference.
"What do you think is going to happen? What do you think we are going to do as a team, or any team on this planet? Aren't we going to just try to win? It's a simple premise. How that makes people feel, I'm not really fussed and I don't really care.”
Guardiola is counting on Postecoglou's mindset and will approach the game to win, according to his comments in his pre-match presser.
“It’s obvious I would say. We have just one option, win the game. We will go from there,” the City boss said.
“I have a theory as a manager, what we have done yesterday is over. [From the last four Premier League games,] 15 goals is fine and gives us the points to be here. It doesn’t give you an extra thing tomorrow for when we start the game.”
“We know if we don’t win we will not win the Premier League. It’s what we have to do to know exactly what they are as a team.”
“So demanding always has been there, but especially this season because they are more proactive than in the past than with different managers.”
“They are so aggressive, it doesn’t matter what’s happening, they were losing 4-0 in Anfield and they continued, continued, continued to do the game plan and stick to what they believe.”
“The difficulty is there. But at the same time we know what we are playing for. To give us a chance at home dependant on us. That’s our mindset.”
Tottenham v Man City goes live at 20:00 hours UK time on Tuesday at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, North London.