Man City make Premier League request amid Arsenal title race

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has voiced his frustration over the way his team are being treated by the Premier League

Manchester City have sent a request to the Premier League for their 2025/26 season to start later than Arsenal and the rest of their rivals due to their participation in next summer's Club World Cup.

The FIFA tournament is expanding next year and is moving to the summer as Gianni Infantino tries to branch out the competition. Instead of taking place over the course of a fortnight in December, the next competition shall last a month between June and July with the final ending on July 13.

As part of their contracts, City players are entitled to three weeks holiday at the end of the campaign meaning their pre-season would effectively last one week before the 2025/26 Premier League season begins should they reach the final of the tournament. However, much to Pep Guardiola's frustration, it appears the Premier League may have rejected this request.

Speaking to the media on Friday ahead of the Premier League encounter with Fulham, Guardiola shed light on the situation. "In this month or three weeks and after the holidays, the Premier League has not allowed us to postpone the first two games for our recovery," he said.

"Absolutely not allowed. Premier League say yes to us? No, absolutely not.

"Thank you so much! They don’t postpone these games so that will be the moment of: ‘Oh, what do we do?’

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"I don’t have an answer right now because I’ve not been there before. I think we are going to take a decision with common sense.

"We will see how the players are, the schedule, then we are going to decide." FIFA have announced that they expect clubs to play their strongest teams in the tournament but how this will be governed is unclear.

However, what we do know is that Arsenal could be handed a major advantage as their squad will be afforded a full pre-season to recover having not qualified for the Club World Cup. The Gunners start the weekend level on points with City and a point behind leaders Liverpool in the Premier League table.

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