Guardiola wants Haaland to ‘play with passion’ in their clash against Chelsea

Erling Haaland took the center stage when Manchester City clashed with Everton on New Year’s Eve. The Norwegian goal machine clashed with Ben Godfrey prior his goal and then celebrated in front of him. He later received a yellow card because of a challenge on Mykolenko. Now, Pep Guardiola has revealed that he has talked with the 21-year-old, asking him to keep his emotions in check but he emphasized he still wants the same passion when they meet Chelsea on Thursday night.

"I like it, the extra limit. Not just him, everyone. His behaviours, you always have to use [points to his head]. But play with this passion. That is necessary. I prefer that than to be flat. Strikers have to handle tough, tough central defenders. It's necessary. Tomorrow he'll have a battle with Koulibaly and Thiago Silva. Always it's a big challenge and that's why the Premier League is so special."

Guardiola said about

.

He went on to emphasize the importance of their clash against 

as they have to be perfect to catch up with Arsenal at the top of the table.

“[It will be a] tough game, tough side, well managed, Stamford Bridge, what can you say, always difficult, looking forward to this week, the different competitions and the next three games,"

he added.

"We have to reduce the gap by playing good and winning games, but they could do more than 100 points if they keep this average and we will not catch them, we have to be almost perfect and hope they drop, last night [against Newcastle] they were excellent."

Guardiola seems to be playing mind games with Arsenal the same way he did with Jurgen Klopp. The Citizens could get closer to Arsenal as they dropped 2 points against Newcastle last night.

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