Pep Guardiola watched on as his Manchester City team deservedly lost 2-1 to Newcastle United.
A game where if United had taken some of their other great chances, the winning margin could and should have been wider.
Pep Guardiola clearly finding defeat hard to take and clearly showing that yesterday at St James’ Park, during and after the defeat.
Manchester City had only lost one of their last 14 matches in all competitions and had won 11 of them.
Great to see as Newcastle United put in such a brilliant performance and were well worth the win.
Pep Guardiola reflecting on Newcastle 2 Manchester City 1:
“We gave everything.
“We wanted to make a step like we have done in the last two months…but this is not an easy place to come after the international break.
“There is a long, long, long way to go.
“It was a tight game, chances for both sides.
“Gigio (Donnarumma) was extraordinary, we missed chances, we were better in the second-half, we conceded a goal, and after switched both sides (wide players), and at the end we could not take a result”
Pep Guardiola confronted match referee Sam Barrott after the final whistle but was desperate to try and play that down when asked about it:
“Everything is fine. Everything is fine. It is what it is.”
Gianluigi Donnarumma was booked after his lengthy over the top protests when he failed to get a free-kick for some minor contact with Harvey Barnes in the lead up to Newcastle’s winning goal, Pep Guardiola asked about his goalkeeper:
“He felt a touch…but the VAR and the referees decide the opposite, we are used to it.”
Pep Guardiola then adding:
“The last five questions have been about referees and the actions….ask the referees.
“I’m not coming here to talk about referees, it’s gone.
“It (Donnarumma not getting a free-kick in the lead up to conceding a goal) didn’t happen against Bournemouth so it’s normal it didn’t happen today.”
Pep Guardiola asked about at the end of the match when he confronted Bruno Guimaraes and he (Guardiola) was clearly angry:
“I asked Bruno (Guimaraes) what happened with Gigio (Donnarumma) and him and I think it’s fine.”
My thoughts
I think this is absolutely a case of Pep Guardiola trying, to an extent, to backtrack on what we all saw was quite obviously the case.
Pep Guardiola with severe bad loser syndrome having never lost to Eddie Howe in the Premier League and most times winning against Newcastle United and then all smiles and full of praise for losers NUFC.
We could all see with out own eyes how Pep Guardiola was taking his anger out on both the referee and Bruno Guimaraes, as he struggled to take his team deservedly losing, knowing that if Arsenal beat Spurs today then they will go seven points ahead of Man City.
Guardiola reining back on the behaviour we all witnessed BUT at the same time still making out that he and his team were badly done to by the match officials.