CLINCH TITLE BY JANUARY? THAT’S UTTER KLOPPTRAP

Pep ridicules Kop chief’s ‘totally unrealistic’ prediction

PEP GUARDIOLA scoffed at claims by Liverpool rival Jurgen Klopp that his Manchester City team will win the Premier League by January. The Etihad boss poured scorn on the comments – made in a French magazine – and branded them “totally unrealistic.”

He said: “You are English, have you ever known a team win the title in January? No. It’s totally unrealistic.”

But it will take something special to overhaul City now. They have picked up 28 points from 10 games and no team has failed to win the league after achieving that.

Guardiola refused to be drawn on when he thought City might clinch the title after their eighth straight league win and 13th in all competitions.

“We want to win against Arsenal in our Premier League game next Sunday and we want to beat Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday,” he said. “Those are our next targets.”

But he insisted his team are in no mood to squander their impressive start which has brought them 35 goals from 10 league matches so far.

Guardiola said: “Our mood is good. We believe we’re going to score goals and concede few. We are able to do that. You see the bench and you see how many good players there are. Jesus has to play well because he knows Aguero is there. Results help too – win, win, win – that helps. The way we played over 90 minutes showed me a lot.”

But the Spaniard believes his side need to be more clinical than they were yesterday after failing to convert their massive dominance into more goals.

He expects them to improve even more, claiming: “We want to win titles and we need to be clinical in those positions but the way we played, especially in the second half, was very good.

“Of course there is more to come. We have won 5-1, 6-0 and 7-2 and this was 3-2, so there is more to come.”

Guardiola left Aguero on the bench with the striker needing just one goal to break the club scoring record of 177 goals as set by Eric Brook 78 years ago. Guardiola said there was no doubt Aguero would return soon but admitted there was a need to rest his main hitman.

“Of course he will play but he’s been carrying an injury for three weeks,” he said.

“He was only going to play 80 minutes on Tuesday but he ended up playing 120 minutes (against Wolves in the Carabao Cup) so that’s why he didn’t play today.”

West Brom boss Tony Pulis was massively impressed with City – though he warned that there could be many obstacles in their quest for the title.

Pulis said: “They are certainly one of the main contenders but it’s a long season.

“They are in all the cup competitions. They’ve got to be fortunate with injuries and the bounce of the ball.

“We’ve given them a game. There will be a lot of teams who will do the same. “Winter comes – you see what happened to Manchester United when they went to Huddersfield and it was windy and it was wet. There are lots of obstacles. It is not in the bag yet. There is a lot to play for and certainly the team across the road will be thinking that.

“Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, there are six outstanding teams. You only have to look at the results in Europe to see just how outstanding those teams are.

“But City have players who can take you out of the game in oneagainst-one situations or with a single pass.“

MATCH REPORT:

PULL-OUT p2-3