agreed with and believes he saw signs of tiredness from during the closing stages of last night’s clash against Bayern Munich.
and ultimately maintained their three-goal lead from the first leg a week ago.
There is no respite for Guardiola’s treble chasers, however, with Sheffield United up next in the FA Cup at Wembley on Saturday, before they face the Gunners in what has been billed as Premier League title decider at the Etihad on Wednesday night.
Arsenal could arrive at the home of the champions with a seven-point lead, albeit having played two games more, should they beat bottom of the table Southampton at home tomorrow evening.
The Gunners have shown signs of fragility of late, conceding two goal leads against both Liverpool and West Ham in consecutive games, but Wenger believes City also displayed signs of weariness against Bayern that Mikel Arteta’s men could exploit.
He told beIN Sport: ‘Arsenal still has their fate in their hands. If they win the game they will win the championship.
‘Like Guardiola said tonight City is tired. I felt really they finished tired in the last 10 or 15 minutes (against Bayern) and maybe Arsenal can take advantage of that because Arsenal plays nothing else, just the championship and they play on Friday night after they have five days to prepare this game.
‘Physically they could have an advantage and surprise City that’s what I hope of course but let’s see. I still think we will win it.’
Guardiola, meanwhile, was delighted his side advanced to the last four but conceded they struggled to find their normal rhythm and cohesiveness during a difficult opening 45 minutes against Bayern.
‘I’m so happy – three years in a row in the semi-finals of the Champions League against an incredible team,’ he said. ‘But we struggled in the first half and 4-1 doesn’t show the two games. Fortunately, they missed their chances.
‘We defended well and in the second half we were much better. The only regret is we didn’t have more sequences of passes. You have to have more passes against a team of that quality.
‘But apart from that, congratulations to all at Manchester City and thank you to all our fans who came to Munich.’
, .
, and .
