Pep feared City had lost title momentum
PEP Guardiola admitted he didn’t know when his City side kicked off at Chelsea if they would have lost their Premier League momentum.
The Blues boss was elated after the 2-0 win over Newcastle on Boxing Day, not just with the result but with the way his team played.
Eight days later, at the end of a hugely disrupted week that saw one match postponed and six first team players - Kyle Walker, Gabriel Jesus, Ferran Torres, Ederson, Eric Garcia and Tommy Doyle – testing positive for Covid-19, the Blues were even
better in a 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge.
“I think our momentum started at Newcastle. I remember afterwards in the press conference having that feeling that we played in the way we have to play,” he said. “Unfortunately it was disrupted and we could not go to Goodison, and I didn’t know how that tempo would be (against Chelsea).
“But we did really, really well. It is the way we have to play. I’m not talking about playing slow or lazy but we need the ball to be good. Without it, we are not good enough.”
City have struggled all season for goals, having topped the scoring charts under Guardiola for the past three seasons. Jesus was absent at Stamford Bridge while Sergio Aguero played only a few minutes off the bench, yet the Blues were the most clinical they have been as they scored three first-half goals to effectively kill the game.
“We are not a team to make big transitions, of 40 to 50 metres,” added Guardiola. “We need to play one type of football and transitions like United, Liverpool, Tottenham, we cannot play in that way.
“We play another tempo. Our success in the past was in this way. We have to play in our rhythm, lot of passes, passes, passes then attack. We won the Premier Leagues in that way with being patient and calm. We have missed this tempo [this season] for different reasons and today we had it.”