Guardiola calls for patience after setback at Spurs
Pep Guardiola advised Manchester City’s supporters it will take up to three years for his methods to fully bear fruit after his side lost 2-0 at Tottenham.
City had avoided defeat in the first 11 games of Guardiola’s tenure as manager, but they were given a rude awakening at White Hart Lane on Sunday as Spurs trimmed their Premier League lead to a single point.
Guardiola declared Spurs potential champions afterwards, but emphasised — as he had prior to the game — that his team are at a different stage in their development to Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
Asked if Spurs were title contenders, Guardiola replied: “They were last season. Why not? The same trainer, new players. In two, three years, my team will be better. In that sense it’s normal. In the Premier League there are many teams who can achieve that and Tottenham are one of them.”
He added: “They were the better team. It can happen sometimes. We play against one team that has been together the last two or three years, who last season were fighting until the end to win the Premier League.”
Guardiola, who had seen his team win the first six league games under his stewardship, acknowledged that City had been unable to live with Spurs’ asphyxiating high press. “We knew how aggressive they are, home and away, but especially at home,” said the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach. ARSENAL WERE LUCKY, SAYS WENGER
BURNLEY: Arsene Wenger admitted Arsenal were lucky to come away with a narrow 1-0 victory over Burnley after a disputed injury-time winner took them within two points of the Premier League summit.
“I was fuming because we played the short corner at the end of the two added minutes,” said Wenger. “I was asking why didn’t we take the direct corner? I didn’t see it go in, but I’ve been told that we were fortunate to get the goal.”
Arsenal went a record ninth game unbeaten in all competitions and Wenger described it as a “big win” after City’s defeat to Spurs.
“It’s a big win because City lost,” said Wenger, adding: “We were five points behind them going into this game, and when you get a chance to move closer you can’t miss it, so we have to be pleased with the way we kept going to finally get the win.” MOURINHO RUES MISSED CHANCES
MANCHESTER: Jose Mourinho insisted Manchester United had played their best football of the season and could have put seven goals past lowly Stoke City after their 1-1 draw on Sunday.
“It’s simple — that was the best performance of the season” said Mourinho, whose side beat reigning champions Leicester 4-1 the previous weekend.
“Three or four-nil at halftime, six or seven-nil at the end of the game... but the result was 1-1. That’s football.
That’s very undeserved but, I repeat, that was a much better performance than against Leicester. Against Leicester, the result made more than the performance.”