Pep Guardiola has taken a cheeky swipe at league leaders Liverpool, highlighting a record his Manchester City side still holds despite their faltering Premier League title defense.
City’s stunning 100-point season in 2017-18 remains unmatched, and Guardiola pointed out that even a dominant Liverpool side won’t be able to reach that milestone this year.
“We took all the records in England,” Guardiola stated. “Who would do 100 points now in modern football? I’m waiting. Or four in a row? I’m waiting – with clubs like Bournemouth, Fulham and Wolves that you have to play.”
City’s reign as champions has come to an abrupt end this season, trailing Arne Slot’s Liverpool by a significant 16 points.
While the Reds are firmly in control of the title race, their maximum points tally this season would fall short of City’s century mark.
“Have you seen Liverpool this season?” Guardiola continued. “They cannot do 100 points already – 99 but not 100.”
Guardiola acknowledged City’s own struggles this season, admitting they “deserve to have a bad season.”
He cited injuries and emotional fatigue as contributing factors to their inconsistent form.
“I asked Gundo (Ilkay Gundogan) yesterday… did you see changes in the Premier League?” Guardiola recounted. “He said massively, the difference was unbelievable. It’s the truth. The teams are much, much, much better in all departments. People prepare so well.”
The City manager also believes the increased competitiveness of the league has made it difficult for his team to maintain their previously high standards.
“We cannot do it for the (injury) problems we’ve had,” he explained. “There are a lot of players, with the amount of minutes they have had, who are so tired, emotionally as well.”
Guardiola emphasized that City’s past success was not the norm and that dips in form are inevitable in football.
“It’s the first time that me and many of the players have lived this position but we have to accept it (and recognise) what happened in the past was not normal,” he said.
Beyond their league woes, City also face a tough challenge in the Champions League, trailing after the first leg of their knockout round tie. Guardiola admitted his team’s inability to maintain high performance levels for entire matches and their struggles with possession.
“We cannot sustain it for 90 minutes, that’s right,” he conceded. “We are in this position because we are not good enough.”
He further explained, “During the big, big success of the team we were able to do sequences of 20, 25, 30 passes in the opponents half – now we are not able to do that. Before we had the confidence to play with the ball and now we suffer when we have the ball. We take risks and make mistakes – that didn’t happen in previous years.”
