Manchester City is keeping the pressure on Premier League leaders Arsenal. On Saturday, they even won a game that, according to Pep Guardiola, the Skyblues would definitely have lost last season.
Manchester City racked up eight competitive wins in a row with a hard-fought away victory at Nottingham Forest. The dominant force in recent league history has now picked up 24 out of a possible 27 Premier League points.
It was anything but a classic City victory—and yet Pep Guardiola seemed somehow more satisfied than usual. “It’s more important how you suffer, how you defend, accept that you’re not playing well and can be better,” the Catalan enthused after the hard-fought victory. “We would definitely have lost a game like this last season.”
At the same point last season, City were already 14 points behind leaders Liverpool with six defeats. A year later, they have 13 wins, just one draw and four defeats – and are only two points behind leaders Arsenal, who can feel Guardiola’s team breathing down their necks.
Hart: “A performance that wins championships”
His team had “wanted to achieve such a dirty victory for a long time.” At City Ground, the time had finally come. “It’s only three points, but especially given the quality of the opponent, they are three important points,” emphasized Guardiola, who praised his counterpart Sean Dyche for doing a great job. “And a few months ago, this team was still fighting for the Champions League.”
Former City keeper Joe Hart was also impressed, telling TNT Sports: “Look at how they celebrated – they know they’ve had a tough afternoon. It was a tough battle, but also a performance that wins championships. When your back is against the wall, you find a way.“
Guardiola was reminded of his previous coaching positions in Nottingham. ”When we won many titles at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, there were many games like this,” said the 54-year-old: “The body language, the connection between us and the fans—they love the goalkeepers and the strikers because they feel that the team wants to succeed, that they want to fight for each other. The fans accept poor performances, but if you don’t give your heart and soul and commitment to the people who love the club more than we do ourselves…”
Tijjani Reijnders, who once again shone as a goalscorer, had “felt” the expected difficulty of the task. At the same time, he sent a message to leaders Arsenal with the telling words: “It’s a very important win—because we’re on the hunt.”