Roy Keane Tells Guardiola to Stop Complaining About Schedule

• Pep Guardiola said fatigue from a busy week left Manchester City short of energy in their 1-1 draw at Arsenal.
• The City boss pointed to the emotional Napoli clash and travel demands before Sunday’s late equaliser denied his side victory.
• Roy Keane dismissed the complaints, saying top players must be “robust” and play multiple games a week.

Pep Guardiola praised his Manchester City side’s resilience but claimed fatigue was a key factor in their 1-1 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates.

Erling Haaland gave City an early lead, but Gabriel Martinelli’s stoppage-time strike rescued a point for Arsenal. Guardiola suggested his players were carrying the effects of a demanding schedule that included last weekend’s Manchester derby and a Champions League clash with Napoli.

“Hats off to the team, their resilience,” Guardiola told Sky Sports. “To score is so difficult when you’re not effective at high pressing, you’re not effective in the build-up. The mindset has to be strong but we have a lot of fatigue with the same players, we have you know how many injured.”

Asked why his team struggled to impose themselves, Guardiola added: “[Arsenal] were better and we were incredibly tired. Sometimes people don’t realise, the game against Napoli in the Champions League was so emotional, after that a recovery day and the day after you have to [travel] four, five hours [to London].”

When pressed further about whether he was complaining about scheduling, Guardiola replied sharply: “But if you want to bring up the fact that now I’m complaining for the schedule, OK. OK, I’m complaining for the schedule! Are you satisfied? OK…!”

Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane, speaking as a pundit on Sky Sports, had little sympathy. “If you’re talking about fatigue and schedules, we’re in September and they’re on the back of two home matches,” Keane said.

“The United game they were fairly comfortable, Napoli had a man sent off after 20 minutes. They’ve not travelled from Russia or Poland when you’ve had a tough away game. We all know the challenges of being a footballer is being robust and playing two or three games a week.

“We look at their players on the bench, I’m sure there must be other managers in the Premier League looking at Pep thinking, ‘Pep, if you think you’ve got problems with schedules and the strength in depth, my goodness.’ I didn’t like that angle Pep was coming from.”