Guardiola urges fans to turn up volume as City host Villa in ‘final’

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has called on fans to treat their Premier League match against Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday as a “final” as his side chase qualification for next season’s Champions League.

City, who beat Everton 2-0 on Saturday, sit fourth in the standings with 58 points from 33 matches, one ahead of seventh-placed Villa. The top five teams in the table qualify for the Champions League.

“It’s a final and we need our people, because I think our people want the Champions League next season again,” Guardiola told reporters.

“Hopefully they can help us from minute one. Don’t wait. Sometimes we are sloppy, sometimes we are not playing well.

“But it’s now we need them – we need them desperately, to support us, to make noise and be there all the time, because it’s a final, absolutely it’s a final for us.”

Villa claimed a 2-1 victory when the sides last met in December and Guardiola warned that Tuesday’s fixture would not be easy, pointing to the Midlands club’s performance in their 5-4 aggregate defeat to Paris St Germain in the Champions League quarter-finals.

“(Villa) is a contender to qualify for the Champions League, and both games they play against my friend Luis Enrique and PSG, wow I was really impressed,” Guardiola said.

“They can play low block or not, but when they decide to go, with the weapons they have, the speed they have, the set pieces, and the way they organise...”

The Spaniard also heaped praise on Nico O’Reilly while urging the 20-year-old midfielder to improve both technically and physically.

O’Reilly, who has been playing out of position at left-back in recent weeks, impressed in the win over Everton and scored the opening goal.

“He has to see if he can play every three days, like for example, Bernardo (Silva) has proven, or Kevin (De Bruyne) has proven, or Ruben (Dias) has proven,” Guardiola said.

“I don’t know if these young players are able to play three games a week for months and months and months. I admire that he’s playing a position he’s never played before, he’s learning. This traditional sport is taking the spotlight in Madagascar’s capital of Antananarivo. 00:0201:22

“Of course he has to improve (defensively) but with the ball he’s good... He has a good shot, and quality in small spaces, and he’s helping us.”

Meanwhile, Mikel Arteta hopes Bukayo Saka will be fit for Arsenal’s Champions League semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain after suffering an ankle injury in Sunday’s 4-0 win against Ipswich.

Saka was substituted 10 minutes into the second half at Ipswich and had an ice pack applied to his right ankle as he felt the after-effects of Leif Davis’ crude foul in the first haff.

Davis was shown a straight red card and VAR did not intervene with referee Chris Kavanagh’s decision after it was adjudged that the Ipswich defender had “endangered Saka’s safety”.

Saka, who played a starring role in Arsenal’s swaggering first half display, played on for a while after the foul but limped towards the tunnel at the conclusion of the game.

However, Arteta is confident the England international, who has only just returned from a near four-month injury lay-off following hamstring surgery, will be fit to face PSG in the first leg at the Emirates Stadium on April 29.

“I don’t think it is intentional but it was dangerous,” Arteta said of Davis’s foul.

“I do worry with the numbers that we have right now, especially when the player has his back to goal, because that is the moment when the foot is planted, your weight is there, and you cannot really react.

“He cuts him from the back. The referee made a decision, and that it is clear. Bukayo was a bit sore, but it’s nothing serious, so it’s good.”

Just four days after they sealed their place in the Champions League semi-finals with a 5-1 aggregate victory over holders Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, Arsenal maintained the feel-good factor in Suffolk.

The Gunners, who have never won the Champions League, went ahead against Ipswich in the 14th minute when Leandro Trossard converted Saka’s cross.

Agencies