Premier League is harder to win than La Liga and Bundesliga, says Pep Guardiola

Posted Tuesday, May 08, 2018 by squawka.com

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has revealed that winning the league in England is "more difficult" than in Spain or Germany.

Guardiola, 47, guided his City side to a domestic double this season, winning the Premier League title in emphatic fashion, as the Etihad club have now won the joint-most games in a single season.

The Catalan coach has won both La Liga with Barcelona and the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich, but he believes the English league has been his toughest challenge to date.

City were presented with the league trophy on Sunday after firing a rare blank against Huddersfield Town as the clubs drew 0-0.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Guardiola said: "Here, it is more difficult. In England, it's special because it's so tough."

The 47-year-old believes the challenge is so difficult because of the "huge contenders and the quality," as Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal all compete for domestic dominance in each given season.

Having endured a difficult first season in the Premier League, with City finishing third and 15 points behind then champions Chelsea, Guardiola has acclimatised himself expertly to the league, winning on his second attempt with five games to spare.

He continued: "We are delighted with what we have done and the way we have done it.

"At the start of the season, you never know what is going to happen. You just have to prepare the team well and the title was the consequence.

"We've seen in recent seasons how the team who won the Premier League has not even qualified for the Champions League the following year so making back-to-back titles in this league will be tough but we accept the challenge."

Guardiola lifted back-to-back trophies with both Bayern and Barca, and so that will be his next challenge for the 2018/19 season, as it has been a decade since a team successfully defended their Premier League title. Sir Alex Ferguson lifted the trophy three seasons in a row with Manchester United 10 years ago: 2006/07, 2007/08, 2008/09.

City host Brighton on Wednesday night, before travelling to Southampton on the final game of the season next weekend.