Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola defended Arsenal counterpart Mikel Arteta after their 4-1 Carabao Cup quarterfinal win.
City were comfortable winners as Gabriel Jesus, Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden and Aymeric Laporte struck their goals.
Guardiola said afterwards, “I didn’t speak with him. What can I say, everybody knows we are judged on results. He can defend himself perfectly.
“I worked with him, we cannot have had our success without him. He is an incredible manager. I know his proposals and what he will do. Not even a little run of bad results is going to change my opinion.”
On the game, he also remarked: “Both teams need to score goals, we score four. We changed the set-up, they score a good goal, after the second half we had more fluidity. The second goal was helped, the third maybe offside, so that makes a difference. After 3-1 it is a completely different game.
“We put another player in the position we can make it dangerous. We score a goal, we had a good moment, didn’t suffer and they could not make passes in a row, but they changed, pressed better. The second half we adjusted and were a little bit more comfortable.
“The last two or three years we have scored a lot of goals and this year we struggle, but of course goals are important.
“It is good for the rhythm for the players that haven’t played. For four years in a row we are in the semi-finals which is a good achievement in this competition.”
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