Pep closes on title thanks to 5-star break
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MAN CITY ...... SO’TON ......
PEP GUARDIOLA hailed his Manchester City players for getting back on track with a bang as they tore apart sorry Saints.
Doubles from Riyad Mahrez and Kevin De Bruyne book-ended an effort from Ilkay Gundogan as the Etihad men overcame a sluggish start and VAR controversy to put their 2-0 defeat to Manchester United in the rear view.
Boss Guardiola said: “We won because of the quality of the players we had on the pitch.
“Southampton made us suffer at times but it was good in general. They put a lot of players in the middle and made it very hard for us.
“But in four-and-a-halfyears we have won everything ourselves. No one has given us anything. It’s still just one game at a time and there are nine left.”
The weekend loss in Stretford ended a streak of 21-straight wins as City sit 14 points clear in the title race.
But they were back to their brilliant best again last night, breaking the deadlock in 15 minutes.
Ryan Bertrand switched off and, from Oleksandr Zinchenko’s cross, Belgian ace De Bruyne swept home 5 from close range after Alex McCarthy had kept out Phil Foden’s strike.
But Saints hit back within 10 minutes, James Ward-Prowse tucking in from the spot after Aymeric Laporte fouled Jannik Vestergaard.
City were then denied a penalty of their own when it looked like keeper Alex McCarthy brought down Foden but a VAR check did not overrule the whistler.
Guardiola said: ““The penalty (decision) was incredible. I don’t understand it. Maybe one day they will explain the rule around VAR.”
City responded to win convincingly though as Mahrez put them ahead and then set up Ilkay Gundogan to make it 3-1 before half-time.
The Algerian added another after the break and De Bruyne scored a fifth after Che Adams had pulled one back with a close-range finish.
Saints manager Ralph Hasenhuttl said: “We played quite well even though we conceded five.
“We were very brave with the ball at times, it’s just the final quality that’s missing. This game I enjoyed more than if we’d sat back for 90 minutes.”