Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City may be embroiled in a dogfight for the title that will go to right to the wire, the manager citing recent results as indicative of the competitive nature of the season.
On Saturday City could only draw 1-1 at home to Middlesbrough, dropping two points at home in the league for a third consecutive game. In between City also went to West Bromwich Albion and won 4-0.
Later that evening Chelsea overtook City as leaders following a 5-0 rout of Everton, though they were then overhauled by Liverpool on Sunday. Guardiola said: “The last two or three weeks have always been like this. It will [continue] like this. The season is long. We will recover mentally and physically. Sometimes when you miss out on points it is a pity, it is a shame, because we tried to do everything in the game. We were generous in our efforts and the respect for the people [fans].”
City dominated the first half and led 1-0 at half-time due to Sergio Agüero’s 14th goal in 15 matches that came on 43 minutes. City had missed a series of chances to kill off the match and in the second half Middlesbrough rallied and secured a late equaliser from Marten de Roon’s header. Agüero and Kevin De Bruyne spurned further opportunities to seal victory, and Guardiola understands the need for City to be more ruthless.
He said: “What happens in the Premier League is that when they arrive in the area they punish you. That’s why we have to try when we arrive there – like the chances in the first half. They had 10 players [defending], they didn’t want to play. When 10 players are there it is difficult but we created enough chances to score another goal. Víctor Valdés had a marvellous game like [Maarten] Stekelenburg of Everton [in a previous 1-1 draw].”
Guardiola accepts there was tiredness after City’s fine 3-1 defeat of Barcelona last Tuesday. “We created the last two chances for Agüero and the last one with Kevin when he’s alone with no goalkeeper there,” he said. “These kind of things are so important, especially when you played Barcelona a few days before when of course you are tired in the last minutes. You mentally want to finish that game because we are there at 1-0.”
