City must learn from nervy win
WATFORD KEEPER SAVES HIS TEAM’S BLUSHES
Pep Guardiola called on Manchester City to learn from a nervy finish to a seventh-straight Premier League victory with a 2-1 win at Watford on Tuesday.
City’s goals came either side of half-time as Leroy Sane chested the first home, before Riyad Mahrez doubled the visitors’ lead early in the second period.
However, despite dominating, Guardiola’s men had to withstand a nervy finish after Abdoulaye Doucoure bundled one in five minutes from time.
“[In] the last minutes anything could happen,” said Guardiola. “I think we played 65 to 70 minutes at a top, top level. After 0-2 we lost a little bit of our control. We suffered, but that is what it is.
“We have to learn from what happened in the last 20 to 25 min.”
Guardiola made six changes to his starting line-up, despite also missing Sergio Aguero and Kevin de Bruyne through injury.
Yet his team were still too strong for the dogged hosts, with Watford thankful to goalkeeper Ben Foster for City not racking up the 5-0 and 6-0 thrashings of their two previous visits to Vicarage Road.
“When I came to London I thought Big Ben was in the city but, no, he is in Watford, for us,” said manager Javi Gracia.
His side also had chances before the break against a City defence that appeared to miss Aymeric Laporte, who was rotated for the first time in the league this season.
“It was a good old Premier League game – as soon as they scored, long balls start coming, they are extremely physical up front,” said City captain Vincent Kompany. “We managed the game pretty well. You can’t win every game playing fantasy football.”
Gracia added: “They have dominated the game, they have created a lot of chances but I think we have done very good work and, at the end in the last minutes, we had some set pieces to try and get another result.”
Elsewhere, Bournemouth racked up a 2-1 win over Huddersfield to end a run of four-straight defeats. – AFP