Thierry Henry claims Man City boss Pep Guardiola 'not mentally well' after split from wife

Thierry Henry says he has sympathy for Man City boss Pep Guardiola who is dealing with personal issues as well as a tough time for the Citizens on the pitch.

Man City are currently fifth in the Premier League table after 24 matches with the defending champions winning just half of their matches this term.

Their form has put them 15 points adrift of Premier League leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand on all their rivals, after an astonishing 5-1 loss to Arsenal on Sunday.

Spanish newspaper Sport revealed in January that Guardiola and his wife Cristina Serra ‘split up’ after 30 years of marriage together.

The newspaper claimed ‘it was last December when the decision was made and that they have asked their closest circle to close ranks and not explain any details to the press in this regard’.

Guardiola signed a new contract in November just a month before their split with rumours that the Catalan boss could end his time at Man City.

And the report in Spain suggested that one of the decisive factors in the couple splitting up was because of Guardiola’s decision to sign a new contract.

Arsenal legend Henry – who played under Guardiola at Barcelona – thinks it must be difficult for Guardiola to deal with personal issues at the same time as managing a struggling Man City side.

Speaking on Sky Sports, Henry said: “Do I feel sorry about what’s happening to Man City and Pep? Yeah I do, in one thing. It’s not easy to deal with what Pep has to deal with outside of football. I went through that when I went to Barcelona. It’s not easy to deal with stuff like that, when you’re not well mentally.

“You can see that he’s not his usual self. I had to deal with it when I went to Barcelona, I can tell you it’s not easy. No one would like to deal with that while you have to perform all the time. So I think we can understand. Now if you go back on the field, it’s not good enough.

“I don’t think that they can cope whenever a team can deal with playing them all the way to ninety minutes and challenge them and look them in their eyes all the way.”

The Man City boss didn’t get carried away with criticism of his players after their thrashing at the hands of Arsenal – but regrets the last 25 minutes of the match.

Guardiola said: “I only regret the last 25 minutes, we forgot to do what we should do, what we have done for 65/70 minutes.

“Of course it’s a difficult game starting in this stadium, against that team in the first minutes it’s happened many times this season.

“But after 10/15 minutes I think we took the game and played really, really, really, really good and we are in it after 1-1 and good momentum we pass to make the transition with Omar [Marmoush] and a deflection and the third goal.

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“But after that, we then continued to do what you have to do in terms defensively and [be a] little bit more patient. and when you’re playing that way they can run and of course at 3-1 they are comfortable, it’s more difficult.

“I regret the last 15/20 minutes, the rest was a really good game for our side. It’s difficult to understand when you see the result, but this is my feeling.

“It’s happened all season, we are giving away too many things, we are aware this cannot happen, it happened.

“But we reacted really well, and we played with personality and we defended so good and then with the ball we were a threat but unfortunately after the second happened, again many times we had the momentum. For the deflection and in other situations we conceded the goals.

“You have to overcome [it], you cannot lose the control, it’s 90/95 minutes. You cannot finish in the way we played, we could’ve scored three more but the team has to be stable it doesn’t matter what happened.”

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