Pep hails incredible week, Sarri fears sack
MANCHESTER: Pep Guardiola hailed Manchester City’s “incredible week” after they smashed Chelsea 6-0 on Sunday to return to the top of the Premier League on goal difference.
City scored four times inside 25 minutes and added two more goals in the second half to overtake Liverpool.
Man-of-the-match Sergio Aguero scored a hat-trick, curling a superb shot into the top corner in the 13th minute before poaching his second and City’s third six minutes later. He scored his third with a second-half penalty.
“Incredible week, incredible game,” Guardiola said.
“We are lucky to score three from the first four actions. After 3-0 they were much better than us and after 5-0 it was not easy for them.
“To score six against Chelsea and the way we played, we had so much attention. We did it, it’s an incredible compliment to the players, they are outstanding.”
Guardiola also paid tribute to City’s all-time record goalscorer Aguero.
“I have said many times, Sergio scores every single season a lot of goals. I admire these kind of players, the consistency. Young players come but some stay for a long time, that is fantastic.”
On equalling Alan Shearer’s record of 11 Premier League hat-tricks, Aguero said: “I have to continue the same way, but it’s important to win.”
Meanwhile, Maurizio Sarri admitted his job as Chelsea manager is at risk.
“I don’t know. You have to ask the club,” said the Italian when asked if he feared being fired just eight months into a three-year contract at Stamford Bridge. “I am worried about my team, worried about the performance but my job is always at risk.”
A 4-0 defeat to Bournemouth in their last away game was Chelsea’s heaviest league defeat since 1996. And this was their worst loss in any competition since 1991 after failing to recover from Raheem Sterling’s fourth-minute opener.
“We conceded the goal after four minutes in a stupid way,” said Sarri. “We had to only stay in the match and we were not able to stay in the match because we made a lot of mistakes against the wrong opponents. They played really fantastic football.”