Pep Guardiola does not buy the idea that Manchester City was defeated by Chelsea because of the injury concerns.
Man City came to Samford Bridge without their dependable striker Sergio Aguero and long-time absentee Kevin De Bruyne. Guardiola said he was impressed by the performance of his team after a 2-0 loss cost the top league position. They won last season 1-0 with de Bruyne the scorer then.
“It always happens when they are not here. When we won, nobody asked me about the people that are not here. Of course, I would prefer to be with Aguero, Kevin, Benjamin Mendy and everybody, but the guys made an incredible performance. If someone can assure me that if we had them we would have won… nobody knows.
“Now my feeling, knowing the opponent, the performance was outstanding. I have the feeling that last season when we won, this season we played better. But last season Kevin had the ball … and got the goal. Game over. We missed it a little bit. We will improve for next games, we have tough games and in Europe in February.” Guardiola explained.
The title race, according to the Spaniard is still wide open and Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and now leaders Liverpool are all in the race.
“We are in December. If you tell me Liverpool can win the Premier League I will say ‘yes.’ If you tell me Tottenham, Arsenal or Chelsea can, I will say ‘yes. Everybody can win the Premier League but the people judge what happened last season when we were the best. We did it so far but of course when we lose I wouldn’t like to be misunderstood. An argument when you are defeated looks like an excuse. I’m sitting here trying to tell you what I saw and what I saw was quite good.” Guardiola offered.
Whad did they do wrong to lose?