Pep Guardiola has same Mikel Arteta complaint as Man City survive FA Cup scare

Pep Guardiola was unhappy with the ball used in Manchester City's nervy FA Cup victory over Plymouth Argyle, echoing a complaint made by Mikel Arteta.

Arsenal boss Arteta made headlines in January after partly blaming his side's 2-0 defeat at home to Newcastle in the Carabao Cup on the ball. "It's tricky that this ball flies a lot," Arteta claimed. "We discussed that as well, so there are details that we can do better."

The Gunners boss added: "It's just different, it's just very different to the Premier League ball (made by Nike), and you have to adapt to that because it flies different. When you touch it, the grip is very different as well, so you have to adapt to that."

Guardiola has now made the same complaint, even though the FA Cup ball is manufactured by Mitre, whereas Puma make the Carabao Cup ball. Following City's 3-1 win against the giant-killing side from the Championship, who beat Liverpool in the previous round, Guardiola boss said: "I don't know how many chances or shots we had that maybe were not on target due to the ball.

"The ball is difficult to bring it where you want because sometimes, this ball does whatever the ball wants. But really, really pleased with the performance and to be again, for many years, be in the quarter-finals."

City did struggle to hit the target, with only nine of their 29 efforts on goal troubling Plymouth goalkeeper Conor Hazard, who'd been the hero against Liverpool in round four. Three of them got past him, though, as Guardiola's men survived going 1-0 down in the first half. Two goals from 19-year-old Nico O'Reilly turned the game around before Kevin De Bruyne's late clincher.

Guardiola also told ITV post-match: "Big compliments to Plymouth for making our job so difficult. They were incredibly organised, but we played a good game - really good.

"We conceded a goal but we were so solid. I'm really pleased with the game we played. No team has been in the [FA Cup] semi-finals five or six times in a row. Now we will fight, see the draw and see what happens."

City will learn their quarter-finals opponents on Sunday, with the draw due to take place following the conclusion of Manchester United's clash Fulham at 4:30pm.