Guardiola’s exchange with Saint was just a Pep talk!

PEP Guardiola claimed he was telling Nathan Redmond ‘how good he is’ in an extraordinary exchange at the end of the game.

Raheem Sterling scored with the last kick of the match to extend City’s winning run to 19 games in all competitions and break Southampton’s resistance.

That goal sparked jubliation for the home team with raucous celebrations that required the refereee to have words with Guardiola and calm him down.

After the final whistle blew, the City boss was then seen having animated words of his own with Redmond – and they did not look pleasant.

Asked what the two had spoken about, the manager said: “I said how good a player he is. Last season he destroyed us here. I realised how good he is. Today he could not attack because they defended all the time.

“That is what it is. I speak with Van Dijk as well and my players.”

Guardiola was critical of the way Southampton set up after his team came up against a team resolute in its defence and happy to waste time from as early as the ninth minute.

“It was happening 50 years ago,” the Blues boss said.

“Their striker was marking our defensive midfielder so it was 10 men behind the ball all the time. “I believed that we could score but, to be honest, I thought it was over. They defended for 90 minutes, they had a really good go against Liverpool so I wasn’t expecting them to play like that tonight.”