Pep Guardiola hails Manchester City’s vital 2-1 victory over Newcastle as a massive moment in the Premier League title race, closing the gap on Arsenal

PEP Guardiola hailed Manchester City’s 2-1 win over Newcastle as a “massive” moment in the Premier League title race.

The victory at the Etihad Stadium closed the gap on leaders Arsenal to just two points.

Nico O’Reilly put City ahead in the first half and restored the lead before half-time after Lewis Hall had equalised.

City held on in the second half to pile pressure on Arsenal, who travel to Tottenham for the north London derby.

Guardiola knew it was essential to make Arsenal sweat.

“Massive. Newcastle is an incredible team, awesome in physicality and speed they have up front,” he said.

He added that every single game will be similar to this tough encounter.

After finishing without a trophy last season, City are back in the hunt for the seventh English title of Guardiola’s reign.

They will have a game in hand on Arsenal after this weekend and are guaranteed to win the title if they win their last 11 league matches.

Guardiola has embarked on an expensive overhaul of City’s squad in the last 12 months.

He shed ageing stars like Kevin De Bruyne and brought in new players like Marc Guehi.

The Spaniard is aware his new generation largely lacks experience of winning under title race pressure.

“70 percent of the players have never been in that situation, and I don’t play,” he said.

He praised the home crowd as the best of the year and said the team must improve to compete until the end.

Guardiola singled out O’Reilly for praise after the young midfielder’s pair of clinical finishes.

“Nico give us in the middle that physicality that we need,” he said.

He expressed pleasure that the academy had produced such incredible players.

 The Sun Malaysia