PEP’S PITCH IMPERFECT
MANCHESTER CITY are running away with the title – despite playing on a pitch Pep Guardiola says is not fit for purpose.
Four games in 11 days have not helped the Etihad pitch and it is understood there was not enough time between the end of last season and the start of this one – just eight weeks – to relay a new surface.
“We’re trying to find a solution but the grass is not good,” said Guardiola (below). “The weather conditions here in England are tough, but there are stadiums where the grass is good.
“At Arsenal, Anfield and Old Trafford, the grass was better than ours. In Budapest, the grass was incredible, like a red carpet. Our grass still isn’t good – I can’t give you a solution or the reason why, but the reality is not good.”
SAM ALLARDYCE says saving West Brom would be the greatest escape of his fire-fighting career.
He is urging his struggling Baggies side to give him the win of all wins at Crystal Palace today.
Big Sam was brought in to replace Slaven Bilic for his record of getting teams out of trouble.
But time is running out for West Brom as they desperately try to claw themselves out of an evermore-desperate situation.
Big Sam says just one defeat in the last five games has to convince his players they can start winning.
Allardyce (right) said: “I’d have to say it would probably be the greatest because of the number of points we need with 10 games to go.
“So near, yet so far, that’s us. It’s another must-win game, of course, but we have to show the nerve now to do the hardest thing of all in the Premier League and put some chances away.
“It’s been difficult to take as we were the team that leaked goals and we’ve done something about that but haven’t rectified our goalscoring shortcomings.
“If we’d done that in the last eight or nine games we’d have had more than a fighting chance of staying up. It’s a great shame, really. We should be on around 23 points or maybe more but it hasn’t happened because of failure to convert chances.”
The Baggies are on 18 but victory at Palace and other results going their way could see the gap to safety cut to just five points.”
Allardyce says the time when only wins will do is upon them, especially with a three-week break from games to follow.
He added: “We have to believe, starting with a victory at Palace, that we can put enough wins together to get ourselves safe.
“We need to stay buoyant. Morale has been good considering our position.”