Pep Guardiola admits Manchester City’s season has been a bad one despite fighting for a Champions League place
Pep Guardiola says Manchester City’s season has been “bad” regardless of whether they achieve Champions League qualification or win the FA Cup.
Following his side’s dramatic 2-1 win over Aston Villa, Guardiola admitted a sense of frustration at how City’s season has panned out.
Matheus Nunes scored a last-gasp winner in injury time to seal a huge victory on Tuesday. Bernardo Silva had put City ahead early on, forcing Emiliano Martinez into spilling the ball into his own net with a clean strike.
Marcus Rashford equalised from the penalty spot for Villa shortly after, though Nunes’ late intervention put City in pole position to secure a top-five finish.
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Speaking to Sky Sports after the match, Guardiola praised his side’s performance, though he insisted that City’s season had nonetheless been poor.
“We played really good. We were aggressive in our duels, the back four was unbelievable. Really pleased,” Guardiola said.
“Football is emotion. For the fans, players, we have a lot of pressure for the club to go to the Champions League.
“I was so happy. I have to admit it! I tried not to lose it as 1-1 was not a bad result but the action from Jeremy [Doku] was so good.
“The team fought a lot. The performance was really good. This is a fantastic team. But the season has been bad. It doesn’t matter about the [FA Cup] final or if we finish in Champions League.”
But Guardiola accepted that it is normal for teams to suffer poor seasons.
“The reality is what makes you feel good is [winning]the Premier League,” he said.
“But it happens, sometimes you have bad seasons. Liverpool will be champions, and the level of teams is outstanding.”
Ruben Dias echoed his manager’s sentiments, emphasising that the Premier League is the club’s biggest priority.
“They are on the run with us to this top five and it was a special game to get the three points,” the Portuguese said to Sky Sports.
“There’s four games to go and all of them will be massively important. It was important today to get the three points.
“We know how tight it is and how tight it’s going to be till the end. This is a massive step for us.
“It means everything to us. We know exactly the circumstances we are in. Top four and top five means everything to us. This is our Premier League.”
Manchester City goalkeeper Stefan Ortega also praised his side’s performance, believing that they fully deserved the win.
“This is a massively important win for us. The situation on the table before this game was really tight and it still is,” he said.
“So it was really important to get the three points. I felt like in the game in general, we fully deserved to win today. The way we played and the energy we had, we fully deserved it.”
When asked if Tuesday’s win will give his side a big boost ahead of their FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest, the German added: “Yes, it gives us a boost. This season has been really tough.
“Especially now in the last few weeks of the season, we have started to get the energy back and everyone is playing good and now you can see what we can do.
“The target is to finish this season as best as possible and to qualify for the Champions League.”
