Manchester City's Spanish manager Pep Guardiola gestures on the touchline during the English Premier League football match between Southampton and Manchester City at St Mary's Stadium in Southampton, southern England on December 19, 2020. (Photo by PAUL CHILDS / POOL / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. /
Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola has taken the time to praise his player’s performance in Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Newcastle United in the Premier League.
The Spaniard went a step further to describe the display of his charges as the “performance of the season”.
Goals from Ilkay Gundogan and Ferran Torres endured City amassed maximum points which saw them move to within five points of Premier League leaders Liverpool on Saturday.
Guardiola’s City have kept 13 clean sheets in all competitions this season – more than any other team in the top five European leagues in 2020-21.
Speaking afterwards, a happy Guardiola told reporters: “It was the best performance of the season. Our football has to be played in one rhythm so we cannot play in a rhythm that has ups and downs so quickly.
“You have to make a tempo that makes a lot, a thousand-million, passes in the right moment to attack. To do this everyone has to be in his position and everyone has to do his job.
Today was a big example, unfortunately, playing a team always with 10 players behind is not easy to attack but the guys were really good.
“I’m so glad about the way we played. That’s always a consequence for the points we get. We have another victory, we climb some positions, and now we can’t stop in the good or bad moments, we need to be calm because in less than 44 hours we’ll have another game and we’re going to Goodison Park to try to play well first of all.
“The result is always the consequences of the way you played. This was our success in the past and we’re going to continue in the next years.”
Gundogan opened the scoring in the 14th minute before Torres doubled the lead 10 minutes into the second half at home to visiting Newcastle.
Raheem Sterling’s assist for Gundogan was his 150th goal involvement in all competitions since Guardiola joined City in 2016 (96 goals and 54 assists) – more than any other player at the club in that time, per Opta.
City have won all seven games in all competitions in which Torres has scored for the team, with five of his seven strikes coming at the Etihad Stadium.
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