Manchester City manager lashed out at the ill-treatment and racism that the black populace faces across the globe and said that the white people should be “embarrassed and ashamed” of their deeds in the last 400 years.
“White people should say sorry for the way we have treated black people for 400 years. We should send a thousand million messages for the black people. I’m embarrassed and ashamed of what the white people have done for the black people,” Goal.com quoted Guardiola as saying.
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“How people can think they are different? All the gestures are good and positive. Everything we can do to make it conscious, it is not acceptable. We have to do a lot of things for the black people which we have not done so far,” he said.
The Spaniard’s comments came after Manchester City defeated Arsenal 3-0 on the first day of Premier League’s resumption after a three months break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both the teams took a knee to express solidarity to the ongoing anti-racism movement in several parts of the globe.
A massive outbreak of anti-racism protest has occurred after a black civilian was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, United States of America. George Floyd, aged 46, was choked to death by officer Derek Chauvin. He held Floyd down with a knee on his neck though he repeatedly pleaded, “I can’t breathe,” and “please, I can’t breathe”.
Meanwhile, City lashed on to the opportunities caused due to the absence of two starting players in Arsenal’s defence and scored the opening goal of the night in the stoppage time of the first half. Kevin de Bruyne found Raheem Sterling with a cross from outside the box which was misjudged by Arsenal’s second substitute David Luiz.
After the initial whistle, Arsenal looked balanced and prepared to fight the competence of City at their own backyard. Xhaka’s early injury in the fifth minute failed to deter the spirit of the Gunners players. However, another injury within the next 20 minutes hit them hard.
Five minutes into the second half, Luiz committed his second error of the night. He fouled Riyad Mahrez inside the box and earned a red card. De Bruyne coolly sent Leno the wrong way to take his team 2-0 up.
However, another serious-looking injury happened and this time the victim was City’s Eric Garica who, too, left the ground on a stretcher after a collision with his own goalkeeper Ederson.
His injury led to a stoppage-time of 11 minutes and the defending Premier League champions used it to their advantage with Phil Foden putting the final nail in Arsenal’s coffin with a left-footer.
