City hold off late fightback to move five points clear
For Pep Guardiola, in pursuit of something close to football perfection, nights like these must usher those back clouds across his restless mind. How can his team dominate 85 minutes of a game and spend the last five, plus the four added on, defending for their lives to win the thing?
Manchester City were sailing for most of the evening, a team chasing their manager’s vision of total control at a stadium where they had scored 11 goals over the previous two seasons, and at times it was enough for Watford simply to keep them at bay. Yet when Abdoulaye Doucoure forced in his side’s only goal, the serenity of the game was suddenly transformed into a thundering, old-fashioned English shoot-out as Watford went full throttle for an equaliser.
When Guardiola settled in to his seat afterwards, one wondered whether he would agonise over the two chances that Gabriel Jesus missed to extend the lead given to his team by Leroy Sane and Riyad Mahrez either side of half-time. But the City manager was at peace with this performance, recalling other days when his team had to win in the last minute and comparing this as a similar experience, when his team had to defend at the death.
He said that other teams would take note of the way that City fought for the win, with Aymeric Laporte sent on to firm up the defence, the centre-half having been left on the bench for the first time in 19 Premier League and Champions League games. “We spoke in the dressing room that we have to learn about what happened in the last 25 minutes,” Guardiola said. “That is the lesson. Until the referee decides to go home, you can never forget to play.”
It would be unfair to overlook the level of City’s dominance for most of this game against a club who for the past two seasons have beaten the reigning champions at Vicarage Road. This was an occasion when Guardiola chose to rest Raheem Sterling. Nevertheless, Watford’s outstanding player was goalkeeper Ben Foster, who kept City out for most of the first half and came up for attacking corners in those last few frantic minutes.
Looking back on the game, Javi Gracia conceded that his goalkeeper had been integral. “Ben Foster was great, it is no surprise to me,” Gracia said. “When I came to London I thought Big Ben was in the city but no, he is in Watford, for us.”
For much of this game Foster got knee, elbow and glove in the way of the ball when it must have felt – at times – as if it was him on his own. By the end of the game, City were five points clear of Liverpool ahead of their corresponding fixture against Burnley tonight, and the champions have an absurd goal difference of plus 38, which has not been bettered at this stage of the season since the days when Sunderland were a 19th century superpower.
Guardiola said that Jesus’s contribution had been greater than just the expectation on him to score goals. “It is important that he had the chances,” Guardiola said. “The second goal he created. I try as a manager [to bear in mind] if a striker doesn’t score goals he does many other things in terms of the pressing; in terms of helping in many, many situations.”
If Troy Deeney’s shot had beaten Ederson after 32 minutes then it might well have been different, but probably not. Roberto Pereyra had made a break through the City line earlier and his shot was wide of the goal. Big moments like those needed to go Watford’s way and needless to say City had many more, squeezing the home team back with about 70 per cent of the ball.
The first goal came when Sane darted in front of Kiko Femenia to push the ball in with his chest from Mahrez’s cross, with Foster finally helpless. Mahrez’s goal with five minutes of the second half played, from Jesus’s cross, meant that any plans Watford entertained to force their way back into the match were drifting away into the damp night air until their late comeback.
The Watford goal came when Fabian Delph ignored the basics and gave the ball away in the midfield to substitute Gerard Deulofeu. His cross was eventually forced over the line by Doucoure to galvanise Watford for a final push.
Guardiola was asked later about the possibility of an investigation by Uefa into the Football Leaks allegations made by Der Spiegel that could see major sanctions against his club.
“Uefa is doing what it is doing,” he said, “and if he [sic] finds something, the club will make a statement. I’d like to do that so we will know exactly when we are going to finish with the voices. If we did something regular, we will know it. If we didn’t so something regular, the people will finish talking about it, so we will have to wait.”
He added that he trusted the club “and if something is wrong, they are going to tell us”. As for whether it was affecting his players, Guardiola responded with a chuckle. Certainly he is keeping up his part of it and perhaps only Uefa, with its power to eject a club from competition, is the only major barrier currently in City’s path.