Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola knew after 20 minutes of the first half against Chelsea that he was going to have to make half-time changes. Guardiola was criticised for only turning to his bench after 87 minutes against Everton on Saturday, but he brought Rico Lewis and Manuel Akanji on at half-time at Stamford Bridge.
He then turned to Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez on the hour mark and saw the former set up the latter for the only goal of the game three minutes later.
Guardiola was quizzed about his late subs against Everton on the eve of City 's trip to Chelsea and joked he had been taking notes from the question.
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But when he was asked why he felt he needed to call on his replacements much earlier in this game, he revealed he knew early on that something was going to have to change.
"All the managers try to make the subs to improve the team. Sometimes you see a team who are losing but are playing good, why should we change when I have the feeling we’re doing well, why should we do it?," said Guardiola.
"Today after 20 minutes I realise I don’t like what I’m seeing. Why we have to wait? That moment I spoke with Rodo and Enzo and said we have to move something, to change something, otherwise it will be more difficult.
"Everyone saw it, in the first minute of the second half it was a completely different Man City, another rhythm, another game, and our recovery with everyone in their position."
While Guardiola was conducting his post-match press conference his players could be heard celebrating in the away dressing room after closing the gap to Arsenal to five points.
He played down the importance of the win but again said he felt expectations were higher on City than at the Emirates or Old Trafford.
"It could be 10 points, Arsenal could have beaten Newcastle, of course Newcastle make an incredible effort. We could have lost here," said Guardiola.
"I said to the players we still have 63 points to play for, it’s a lot. But we have to keep proving ourselves, it’s normal to be in this position with four Premier League titles in five years.
"We struggle, we handle in our mindset that for everyone people believe in November we’re already champions. This is impossible. The other teams don’t have this pressure.
"After four Premier Leagues in five years it’s not easy to push them again, that’s why I’m satisfied that after what happened in the last years we are there, we would prefer to be closer but the way Arsenal play so far they deserve to be there.
"It was important in the second half to be aware we can do it again and again and again, before Old Trafford and Spurs."
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