‘Bad day’ leaves City 8 adrift
Abraham and Mount spark Blues’ triumph
MANCHESTER: Pep Guardiola admitted Manchester City must regroup after a shock 2-0 defeat against Wolverhampton left the Premier League champions eight points behind leaders Liverpool on Sunday.
Two late goals from Wolves winger Adama Traore condemned City to their first loss at the Etihad Stadium since last December.
With 16 points from eight matches, it is City’s worst start to a league campaign for six years.
They are trailing well behind Liverpool after Wolves joined Norwich as unexpected winners against City this season.
In contrast, Liverpool enjoy a 100 percent record at the top of the Premier League thanks to eight successive victories.
Guardiola had no excuses for City’s poor performance and he was trying not to think about the advantage Liverpool have already built up.
“It was a bad day, a bad game, but we have to credit our opponent,” he said.
“Today we were not at our level. We had problems to make our game. We have faced many teams defending deep and found a solution, but not this time.
“We were not solid in our buildup. It was not just about our defence. The feeling when we lost the ball was they could run at us and that made us nervous.
“The distance to Liverpool is big, but we must not think about the eightpoint gap. We are still in October and there are lots of games and lots of competitions to play.”
As City pushed forward in numbers for a winner, they were caught on the break with 10 minutes remaining.
Raul Jimenez danced past Nicolas Otamendi and squared for Traore to slot past Ederson for his first Premier League goal since September 2018.
And then with virtually the last kick of the game, Traore repeated the trick as he ran clear to seal a famous win for Nuno Espirito Santo’s team.
Nuno said: “I’m very proud. It was a very good performance and the work from the players was outstanding as it is very difficult to play against City.
“The first thing you have to do is stop them and we did that because the players were running like crazy.
“Adama did well for his goals but all the players did well.
“But now we have played like that, the challenge for the players is they have to sustain this level.”
Meanwhile, Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount celebrated their England call-ups by inspiring Chelsea’s 4-1 rout of struggling Southampton.
Chelsea are up to fifth in the Premier League heading into what promises to be a memorable international break for the club’s three young talents with the other being Fikayo Tomori.
“I am happy we are in and around the top group. Obviously Liverpool are out on their own at the minute, but at this early stage we are in a nice position,” Chelsea boss Frank Lampard said.
“This should give us determination to go away [for international duty] and come back in the same vein because the minute you relax in this league it can all change very quickly.”