Guardiola says City’s points record may last years

LONDON: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola believes it will be quite some time before any team beat the 100 points his side reached in the final minute of their triumphant Premier League season.

Chelsea’s 95 in 2004-05 was the previous best in the 38-match per season Premier League era but Gabriel Jesus’ winning goal sent Guardiola scampering down the touchline in delight as his dazzling entertainers reached another landmark.

It was a monumental achievement not matched in the annals of the English topflight.

Even adjusting the old two points for a win to the current three, Liverpool, who enjoyed the previous highest tally in 197879, would only have amassed 98 points that season – and that was over a 42-game season.

“It’s incredible, 50 (points) at home and 50 away,” Guardiola, who went one better than when he oversaw Barcelona’s 99-point La Liga-winning campaign in 2009-10.

“When you get 100 points, it’s something special. I think it’s a record that will stay long.”

As with any successful team, a good few of those have come from late goals, and the manager emphasised how important that was.

“We did it all season, no surrender, try until the end,” he said.

“It was such a difficult game, they defended very well. But the second half was much better.”

What pleased him most, he told Sky Sports, was the style of football.

“All the records we’ve broken, it’s a consequence of the way we played,” said Guardiola.

“Numbers are numbers, but the way we played.

“We didn’t play 38 games perfectly but most of the time we were better than our opponents.” — Reuters