Pep Guardiola allowed his Manchester City players a moment of praise after their demolition job on Tottenham... before claiming he would deny he had ever said anything.
Goals from Rodri and Ilkay Gundogan (two) extended City’s lead at the top of the table and their 11th straight league victory adds to the feeling of inevitability about this title challenge.
City have been able to build such an incredible run by refusing to listen to such talk though, with the manager insisting the focus of everyone is solely on their next opponents. All of the squad have bought into the tactical changes implemented by Guardiola and his most trusted advisors at their lowest point in the season in December, and the emphatic extent of the turnaround has surpassed all expectations.
“11 victories, 33 points is incredible,” said the manager. “I’m quite impressed with the quality of these human beings, these players. I’ll say this but in two hours I will deny I ever said it – and it will be Everton.
“In one season you have bad moments. One hundred points, 98, and 99 for Liverpool were incredible from the beginning to the end but in this period there have been ups and downs, everything.
“Every club has them. It’s normal. In the bad moments, know the reason why, try to smell the reason. I've said many times we are going to lose games, that moment will come. We have to know exactly why and then come back and try to do it again.”
Guardiola spoke this week about not recognising the team that lost to Tottenham in November and then drew with West Brom the following month to leave their season in danger of fizzling out before it had even got going.
As much as the results were poor, it was the nature of the City performances that troubled the manager. While he will not allow too much praise for his team, their approach since they went back to the drawing board have pleased the City boss.
“I’m enjoying watching it. We create more and concede few,” he said. “You can create much more and lose games. This is the only sport where it happens; Basketball, golf, tennis? No, this is this only one.
“But always when you create more and concede few you are closer. This year we’ve not made mistakes. If Harry Kane had scored, hats off. But always I believe when I was a teenager, when I finished the game we created more. Be patient, pass the ball and in the right moment we’ll find the moment.”
