Guardiola: I have no doubts about my team

Norwich force errors at the back to beat City 3-2 Farke reveals planning to prey on vulnerability

The underwhelming first season in English football that saw Pep Guardiola labelled “Fraudiola” was on the Spaniard’s mind after Daniel Farke’s Norwich City produced a masterclass in how to beat Manchester City’s suddenly vulnerable current line-up at Carrow Road.

The 3-2 defeat by promoted opponents who had so many injuries they named two goalkeepers on the bench was a first in the Premier League for nine months but reminiscent of the 2016-17 campaign, when City finished 15 points behind champions Chelsea and were eliminated from the Champions League at the first knockout stage.

Now they find themselves already five points adrift of leaders Liverpool and looking shaky at the back in the absence of Aymeric Laporte, who is out for the foreseeable future after knee surgery. Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones played 82 games between them in Guardiola’s first season in charge. City only became champions once Laporte arrived in January 2018.

That was underlined by the calamity the pair conjured up in the 50th minute for Norwich’s third goal. Stones played the ball out of the City box to Otamendi, who was oblivious to the rapid arrival of Emi Buendia, and Teemu Pukki was teed up for a simple finish.

Guardiola conceded that the pair should have done better but made it clear he would only be backing players who helped elevate his own reputation on these shores. Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Gabriel Jesus all played in 2016-17 and at Carrow Road, and became double Premier League winners in between.

“I am sorry if you think that today I have doubts in my team – I can’t,” Guardiola said. “They gave me all the prestige that I have in England when the first season it was ‘Fraudiola’. Maybe you forget that they are human beings. Maybe you were wrong when you talked about us being unbeatable or a perfect team. I’m closer than ever [to my players] in situations like this.”

Norwich began with seven players out injured and goalkeeper Tim Krul and centre-back Ben Godfrey playing despite not being fully fit. Midfielder Ibrahim Amadou was employed as an emergency defender and Alex Tettey, a relic from a previous Premier League relegation campaign, was brought in from the cold in midfield.

That adversity inspired the underdogs, who went ahead through Kenny Mclean’s early header from a corner and doubled that advantage before the half-hour mark when Pukki set up Todd Cantwell for a close-range finish. Aguero pulled one back on the stroke of half-time, with a header from Bernardo Silva’s cross, but the Otamendi incident left City chasing the game again and a barrage of pressure resulted only in Rodri’s late goal – his first for the club.

Farke admitted that taking advantage of City’s vulnerability at set-pieces, and pressing Stones and Otamendi, had been the cornerstones of his team talk. “We are not known as a team that scores an unbelievable amount of goals with set-pieces but we got the feeling we had a chance to score,” he said.