PEP IN A FLAP AT HIS FLOPS

Finally, City manager’s mask slips as they fall 10 points behind Chelsea in race for the title...

IN front of the cameras, it was business as usual. Pep Guardiola rattled out a succession of noncommittal answers, searched for the positives and kept his game face on.

This was a damaging defeat, a potentially significant moment in Manchester City’ s first season, but Guardiola would not allow anyone to see how much defeat to Liverpool had hurt.

He conceded that his team had been below par but that was about it.

Away from the microphones, though, the mask slipped.

An hour after the final whistle, standing outside City’s dressing room there was a revealing insight into Guardiola’s state of mind as he engaged in a deep conversation with Txiki Begiristain, City’s director of football.

He paced back and forth and loosened his tie. He gesticulated and drove his fist into his hand.

His arms were outstretched and his eyes blazed as he tried to fathom why City were so meek.

As Guardiola ran his hand over his head, exasperation seeping out of him, Begiristain could only listen.

By the time he marched towards the team bus, Guardiola had gathered his poise but this animated snapshot was no isolated incident.

He had been the same at halftime, raging that his plan was not being executed, after Georginio Wijnaldum had given Liverpool a lead that they never relinquished.

‘The manager was angry at halftime,’ Yaya Toure revealed. ‘When you are losing and Liverpool are the better side — and when you are losing like that — then it’s not going to be happy at half-time. It was disappointing and we all felt that.

‘Of course he is going to be angry. He is a manager who can be angry. We have to sometimes improve and react to situations.

‘We knew Liverpool would be waiting when we lost the ball and they did that to score. So he was angry for everything that was happening.

‘We are not going to be perfect. There are times when we won’t take opportunities but we can take opportunities from this too. Anfield is not easy, but we can learn from this and what the manager says.’

Toure kept his counsel about what Guardiola said to his squad in the aftermath but you can be sure there were no platitudes.

Kevin De Bruyne, for example, was anonymous, David Silva was invisible. Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho, meanwhile, looked like men returning from four match bans. It shouldn’t have been this way. Guardiola (right) set City up adventurously, with four attackers going head-to- head with Liverpool’s four defenders, but they never once looked like building up the momentum to overrun their hosts.

Their failure leaves them 10 points behind leaders Chelsea. ‘I was one time in Barcelona nine points behind Real Madrid and we recovered,’ Guardiola said.

‘But the question is: are we able to reduce the gap to Chelsea? Now we have to focus on the next game and not put a lot of stress on things.

‘We can’t say: “Oh, if you don’t win the Premier League…Wow — that’s not going to be a good season”.

‘We are going to analyse what happens at the end of the season with our people — what was good, what was bad — but now it’s about focusing on the next game which is Burnley.’

In one respect, the message Guardiola promotes is correct. Toure, a veteran of two successful title challenges at the Etihad Stadium, pointed to how City extricated themselves from difficult positions in 2012 and 2014 to pilfer the trophy on the final day. Another 19 games, then, offers opportunity.

‘I think we have to believe to win,’ said Toure. ‘If we want to have a chance of winning the title, then we have to win most of the games and we have to put a run together.

‘But we are keeping positive because we have a lot of experience in this team.

‘In 2014 we had a very good run after the new year, we won nearly all the games. It is going to be very tough but we have the team and squad to do something. Chelsea have one game a week but it is going to be tight. This season will still be very tight with so many teams involved at the top.’

What is clear, though, is the challenge is far more complicated than Guardiola — who welcomed Brazil international Gabriel Jesus into his squad over the weekend and expects him to be match-fit soon — envisaged. The man who is used to looking down on his pursuers is in unusual territory.

‘Normally I was top,’ said Guardiola. ‘I was there a lot of times with Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

‘But, OK, this is a new chapter in my career to handle and I’m willing to try it. I’m not able to think too far. Now it’s Burnley. After Burnley it’s to London to play West Ham. That’s our target now.’