With City back in Champions League action at home to Hoffenheim on Wednesday, we kick-off with news of how Pep Guardiola believes Saturday’s frustrating 2-0 Premier League loss at Chelsea merely highlighted why it was wrong to label the Blues as favourites for Europe’s elite tournament.
Reporting in the Independent, Miguel Delaney reports on how the City manager believes the Stamford Bridge result confirmed his feelings.
Delaney writes: “Pep Guardiola says Manchester City are not favourites for the Champions League because of the “unpredictability” of football, pointing to how vulnerable his team were to one attack in the 2-0 defeat to Chelsea at the weekend.
The Catalan did say he was proud his team still played their style, insisting they dominated all but 10 minutes of the match, and said losing that way is a “good lesson” for everyone at the club.
The champions had completely dominated the first half of their trip to Stamford Bridge on Saturday, only to suddenly get exposed by a quick break and N’Golo Kante goal, before David Luiz sealed the Chelsea win with a late header. Guardiola argued it showed why it’s wrong to talk of his side as favourites for Europe’s premier trophy.
“When the people say Champions League, Champions League, we are not favourites because of that reason,” the City boss said. “At that level, you need nothing to score a goal and they scored and that’s why it’s so unpredictable.
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“But that level is this. The only thing we can try to ensure is play the way we do, with personality, try to do that and we did it.”
Meanwhile in the in the Daily Mirror, John Cross writes on how the City manager said the result was also a reminder of what he had been saying all season about the competitve nature of the English top flight.
Cross scribes: ”Guardiola insists he never thought City were going to win this title unbeaten and it was only the media who were making comparisons to Arsenal’s Invincibles, who did it in 2004.
“The Manchester City boss was gracious in defeat after his champions suffered their first Premier League loss of the season at Chelsea but said he didn’t need a reminder about how tough the top-flight is.
“You don’t have to tell me how competitive this league is,” said Guardiola. “It’s you and your analysts that keep saying we are invincible, that we are perfect, how good we are and that in February we are going to win the league.
“You said that. All of you. Not the manager, not any player, not the club.
“What happened last season was because we were incredible. Incredible. But after that, when everybody wants to beat us, being in the position we are, playing a lot of games in the position we have, in the way we want to play, that’s much more important than sometimes even winning.”
The game saw City once again without key midfielder Kevin De Bruyne. On the positive front, the Belgian is expected to be back in action soon after recovering from a knee injury though, speaking to the Independent, Guardiola pointed out that the Blues hadn’t done too badly in KDB’s absence.
Jack Pit-Brooke writes: “Guardiola was asked after the game if City had missed De Bruyne and he legitimately pointed out that given that this was City’s first league defeat of the season, they could not be said to have missed him too badly.
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“Sergio Aguero had been absent too, forcing Guardiola to play Raheem Sterling as a number nine, and City are certainly less sharp in converting possession into goals without their greatest ever goalscorer on the pitch.
“What happened when they were not here? We won every game. Of course I would like to be with Sergio [Aguero], with Kevin, but the guys did an incredible performance today. We won with them and the guys today who were there were incredible.”
“But Guardiola did point to that ability De Bruyne has to speed things up in the middle of the pitch, as he did last season. “Last season, Kevin played the ball, pass pass pass,” he said. “That little action today, we miss it a little bit.”
“The good news for City is that when De Bruyne comes back, they will be able to rotate more in midfield, to keep Fernandinho and the Silvas sharper, as they push on in multiple fronts in the first half of 2019.
“But the sooner he gets back the better, because even a team as good as City will miss a player that decisive. Just as they did on Saturday.”
On the transfer front, meanwhile, the latest player to be linked with the Blues is Japanese star Ritsu Doan.
Teamtalk.com claim that the Club are keen on a New Year move for the player.
They report: “Manchester City are looking to tie up a January deal for Japanese star Ritsu Doan.
“The 20-year-old is currently with Dutch outfit Groningen, who he joined in the summer of 2017 – and City were keen on him even back then – but Doan was happy to his chance in the Eredivisie.
“The diminutive attacking midfielder has settled well and City’s scouts have been keeping close tabs on him, and now the club are fearful that he could be snapped up by one of their European rivals – with Chelsea, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund all taking a keen interest in recent months.
“But City are confident they can broke a deal with Groningen, who believe Doan is their best prospect since Arjen Robben came through their youth ranks.
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“City are happy for Doan to remain in Holland, potentially even for an extra season – but they want him signed and sealed in January, in order to make sure his long-term future is with them.”
Finally, the Guardian report on how City maintained their momentum in the FA Women’s Super League with a crucial 1-0 win over Birmingham at the Academy Stadium.
Suzanne Wrack writes: “Manchester City began with confidence. Just two minutes in, pressing high, Nikita Parris robbed Meaghan Sargeant before teeing up last weekend’s two-goal hero Georgia Stanway but enough yellow shirts got back to quell the threat.
“The early warning was not enough though and more lazy defending with Man City continuing to harass up high led to the home side taking the lead on 14 minutes.
A slow backpass put goalkeeper Hampton under pressure, with Parris closing Hampton rolled the ball weakly towards Aoife Mannion but Stanway read the move, intercepted, and raced past Hampton to fire into the empty net from a tight angle.
“Manchester City manager, Nick Cushing, said there was still room for improvement. “Half of the performance was good because we were good with the ball,” said Cushing. “We used the ball well, we created some clear chances that we didn’t take but the other side of the game we gave up a little too much space and that allowed Birmingham to pass the ball and play the game that they wanted to play.”
