Pep Guardiola believes it is easier for Manchester City to focus on cup glory for the rest of the season as the holders reached the FA Cup semi-finals with a 2-0 win at Newcastle on Sunday.
City will face Arsenal at an empty Wembley in the last four next month after the Gunners beat Sheffield United 2-1.
Kevin De Bruyne’s penalty and a stunning strike from Raheem Sterling got City back to winning ways on Tyneside after a 2-1 defeat at Chelsea in midweek crowned Liverpool Premier League champions for the first time in 30 years.
“In the Premier League we are struggling to focus,” admitted Guardiola. “Now the Cup and Champions League it is a little bit different.”
City were utterly dominant in the first half but had to wait until Gabriel Jesus was pushed by Javier Manquillo inside the box eight minutes before half-time for De Bruyne to break the deadlock.
“We should score more but we played really well and created enough chances to score a lot of goals,” said De Bruyne.
“We know it is really weird (to play behind closed doors), it is not something that I enjoy, but we are professionals and we need to keep going. We wanted to respond in a good way. We are happy we are in a semi-final now.”
Newcastle had a glorious opportunity to equalise when Dwight Gayle somehow fired over Allan Saint-Maximin’s cross.
However, City possess plenty of firepower at the other end and moments later Sterling cut inside to curl into the bottom corner from outside the box to kill the tie as a contest.
