The boss said City were more patient in the second half and we finally got the breakthrough in the 64th minute with Nathan Ake’s neat finish from Jack Grealish’s pullback.
The 1-0 victory sends us into the fifth round of the FA Cup and condemned Arsenal to their first defeat of 2023.
“Normally in football you have two central defenders against a striker,” Guardiola said.
“That didn’t happen because it was man-to-man for them, so one central defender goes to Kevin [De Bruyne] or to [Ilkay] Gundogan and they play three up front.
“They rely on these because they have a good defender who wins these duels and support in the second ball.
“Normally they are so aggressive in the first part and after when you break the line they defend deep so well. They have an incredible work ethic. All the departments they do pretty well otherwise you do not get 50 points.
“In the second half, we were better and more patient.”
With two meetings still to come in the Premier League, Guardiola expects both sides to make tactical and personnel changes when those fixtures come around.
“I am pretty sure both teams are going to adjust something,” he added.
“I have the feeling now we are going to do something differently just in case they play in this way but I have to review the game, see which players we select and try to play better than some parts today.”
Hear what the manager had to say by watching the video above...
