Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Pep: My finest hour...
if I win second title with City
PEP GUARDIOLA insists his achievements at Manchester City will rank as the proudest of his managerial career – even if his champions fail to defend their title.
City are top again, courtesy of teenager Phil Foden’s first Premier League goal.
But they must win their last four games – against Manchester United, Burnley, Leicester and Brighton – to be
certain of beating Liverpool to the title.
Guardiola won the Champions League twice and three La Liga titles with Barcelona before landing three successive Bundesliga crowns with Bayern Munich.
But he said: “We now have 86 points after winning 100 points last season – and that is one of the most remarkable things of my career.
“I mean it. I don’t deny how good it was in Barcelona or Bayern Munich.
“People will say this will be a big fail in my career if I don’t win the title again, but this is a league where everyone can lose against anyone. We got 100 points last season. Now we are against the best team Liverpool have ever had.
“I want to win the title. But I will not judge these players if we lose because they have played every three days for the last three months, knowing that, if they lose, they have lost a competition.”
City, eliminated from the Champions League last Wednesday night, secured their 10th successive Premier League victory when Foden headed home in the fifth minute.
But Spurs made the home side suffer and it required outstanding saves from City keeper Ederson to take the champions back to the top. Guardiola said: “It wasn’t our best performance. We played better in the other two games against Spurs.
“But today the players knew that, if we didn’t win, then we wouldn’t win the Premier League.
“This game was tough, but I like it when it is tough. We started very well, but we also had to suffer as Spurs were not under any pressure.”
Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino (above) said: “I’m not frustrated with the result – that’s football. We deserved more, at least a draw.
“We will try to win our games. It will be tough because we are fighting with big teams.”