It will be the fifth meeting between the two sides this season, after they were paired together in the two-legged Carabao Cup semi-final. The Blues booked their place at Wembley with a 5-1 aggregate win, but lost at St James Park in the league in November. The teams meet again at The tihad on Saturday evening in the reverse fixture.
Guardiola said: I told the club we must ask hopefully we can convince the Carabao Cup that Marc can play the final. I don't understand why he cannot play the final. Hopefully we make a letter you buy a player for a lot of money and he is not able to play for a rule I don't understand. Hopefully they can change it. Yet asked if he was hopeful, Guardiola said: No. To change the rule? No way.
Yeah, really good. I'm a little bit sad and upset because in net spend in the last five years we are seventh in the Premier League. I want to be the first. I don't understand why the club don't spend more money. I am a little bit grumpy with them. But like we won in the past because we spent a lot, now six teams have to win the Premier Leagues, Champions Leagues and FA Cups because they spend more in the last five years.
What Declan Rice said to Arsenal coach The exact conversation is uncertain, but lip-reading expert Jeremy Freeman has suggested that Rice initiated the confrontation with a just go, before Gabriel stepped in to diffuse the situation and urged Stuivenberg: Stop, please stop, please stop. Freeman added that Rice reacted with: Oh for f***'s sake, followed by: He doesn't know what the hell he is on about?.
You can see now, not only in games but every day in training how much he wants it so he's going to deserve a chance soon. It has been a real intense journey. When he joined us he lifted the belief, the spirit and the energy of the team and he gave something very different to what we already had and was very impressive.
It was a great moment, I appreciate, always thankful. In some moments when you don't win games, they have been not happy, but it's normal. But overall, the fans have always been there. These are the kind of games that I fall in love even more with the players because you cannot imagine how easy it is to slip, to slide, because they are tricky games.
