Pep Guardiola has launched a remarkable attack on referees that fail to punish teams for time-wasting against Manchester City.
City will face Newcastle United at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday knowing a win will move them back within two points of Premier League leaders Arsenal.
While Guardiola was generous in his praise of Newcastle during the open section of his Friday press conference, during the embargoed section he was asked about the potential for Eddie Howe’s side to time-waste at the Etihad.
The question was linked to what Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag had previously said about Newcastle.
Ahead of United’s Carabao Cup final defeat of Newcastle last weekend, Ten Hag said of his opponents: “They’re an annoying team to play against. They try to annoy you. We have to make sure that we play our game and we focus on our game.”
Although Newcastle had little opportunity to time-waste at Wembley, they showed that they can mix beautiful football with gamesmanship when they frustrated Arsenal in a goalless draw in January.
What did Guardiola say?
When Guardiola was asked if his players need to avoid becoming frustrated if Newcastle chose to time-waste, he gave a furious response.
“No, if there is wasted time, we will have a yellow card for Ederson, don’t worry.”
Guardiola was of course referring to the yellow card goalkeeper Ederson was shown during the first half of the 3-1 win against Arsenal last month.
“We are the team with the least wasted time, and we go to Arsenal and after 35, 37 minutes, we got a yellow card. Don’t worry about wasting time.
“It depends on the referee. But I’m pretty sure the yellow card (for time-wasting) will be for Ederson. How many games, how many thousand, million games have teams come here to the Etihad Stadium to waste time with the keepers? 20 seconds every time at a goal-kick, long ball, and nothing happened. Absolutely nothing happened.
“After, we go there [Arsenal], and we’re a team that wants to be active, active to play, and we get a yellow card. After that, we define these kind of situations, and that’s why I’m far away about comments about the referees because I don’t care for one second. What they can do, they can do whatever they want.”
