Pep Guardiola has explained why he substituted Kevin de Bruyne towards the end of Manchester City’s Premier League win against Arsenal on Wednesday.
City took a huge step towards defending their Premier League crown by beating Arsenal 4-1 at the Etihad Stadium, and as usual, De Bruyne played a key role.
It took the Belgian midfielder just seven minutes to break the deadlock when he found the bottom corner of the goal from the edge of the box after collecting Erling Haaland’s knockdown.
On the stroke of half-time De Bruyne turned provider when John Stones headed home his sumptuous cross, before the 31-year-old put City out of sight with a cool finish early in the second half.
City now trail Premier League leaders Arsenal by two points having played two games fewer than their rivals.
De Bruyne has now scored seven goals and provided 16 assists in 29 league appearances this season, and supporters will be hoping he can guide City to wins against Real Madrid and Manchester United in the Champions League semi-finals and FA Cup final respectively.
However, after Wednesday’s game Guardiola revealed that his star midfielder was replaced by Julian Alvarez in the 80th minute due to a slight injury issue.
What did Guardiola say?
“Kevin told me he had some niggles in his legs, so I made a substitution,” Pep said after the match.
De Bruyne played a key role in how City played, so fans will be hoping the issue is nothing serious.
Rather than relying on their patient build-up play as they do in 90 percent of their games, City successfully bypassed Arsenal’s man-to-man press with long balls up to Erling Haaland.
De Bruyne was usually the player who Haaland laid the ball off to, and found plenty of joy running into the spaces behind Arsenal midfielders Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka.
“Today was a game like in the Emirates [back in February],” Guardiola said of City’s win.
“Arsenal were much better than us there. We won the game. We had to adjust something.
“The game there was long ball, long ball to Erling. Today we were more patient with them all. He [De Bruyne] wins the second ball. He is a master.
“Kevin is so important. There was less time to play these types of ball. They were man-to-man with aggression.
“When we can find Kevin and run, he is unstoppable. Jack and Bernardo found the momentum to punish them.”
If City are to adopt a similar game plan against Real Madrid in a few weeks then they will need De Bruyne to be fully fit.
