Pep Guardiola blasted Everton for their reaction to the postponement of their Premier League game with Manchester City and insisted that he had personally phoned Carlo Ancelotti to inform him of the situation.
A terse club statement from the Toffees shortly after the match had been called off four hours before the scheduled kick-off expressed no concern or sympathy for anyone at City that had tested positive for Covid-19 and concluded by stating they would be seeking full disclosure over why the game had been abandoned. Four days later, Ancelotti sent his best wishes to the City players through the club website.
City's manager went into detail on Friday about how the situation unfolded and why the decision was made by the Premier League as he hammered home that this was not an isolated incident. While the club hadn't commented on the nature and tone of Everton's statement, Guardiola was highly critical.
"We had enough players to play Everton, we wanted to play against Everton, we had the academy but for the day of the game there were more cases and the virus was in our centre," he said.
"We informed the Premier League, I personally called Carlo Ancelotti to explain the situation because we could play but if we travelled on the coach and more players had it - the day before we were in touch all of us - it was a huge risk for infecting not just us but Everton players. It is not about what happened here at Manchester City, it is what has happened all around the world. Unfortunately people are dying all around the world, in the UK it’s been over 900 deaths for over two days. The problem is still here.
He added: "There are clubs making statements complaining about this when it’s just thinking about health when a lot of people in the UK are dying every day and a lot of people are being contaminated every day. What can we say? The world is [whistles]."
As well as explaining that he kept Everton's manager in the loop, Guardiola made reference to the fact that five important players were injured for the scheduled game.
While there may be disappointment at Goodison over the match being called off, there is more chance that the Toffees will be in better shape when the fixture is rearranged.
"I prefer the statement from Carlo Ancelotti than the statement from the club," said Guardiola.
"We were clear, we spoke with the Premier League, like the one with Mikel and Arsenal before the first lockdown when he tested positive and we cancelled the game. It was the same, we contacted the Premier League and I called Carlo personally to announce the situation and I said we’d see with the Premier League.
"We would have loved to play against Everton that day. Hopefully we will go to Goodison Park when [Lucas] Digne, Richarlison, Allan, James [Rodriguez], can play and we are going to beat all of them.
"We would have loved to play that game but unfortunately I think the Premier League decided wisely for the welfare of everyone not to increase the cases given that in two or three days, there were seven people who were positive."
