Pep Guardiola warned that Manchester City are close to reaching the level at which the reigning Premier League champions have dominated English football over the last decade.
City were in top form against Ipswich Town on Sunday, winning convincingly 6-0 at Portman Road. Phil Foden (2), Mateo Kovacic, Jeremy Doku, Erling Haaland and James McAtee scored in East Anglia, catapulting the club back into the top four after starting the day eighth.
Although there are still some elements of City’s game to be clarified, Guardiola said after the game that his team was doing many things right to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
“We’re really happy, we’re back to doing things that have defined this team for the last ten years,” Guardiola said Sky Sports after the game. “I’m really happy about the three points and about qualifying for the Champions League next season, it’s going to be so difficult.”
“Much better. Maybe not our best, but with the consistency we have in our game we are closer. Most of these didn’t happen in the previous games we won.”
“The way we played without the ball, you can’t play in the short spaces. Everyone who had the ball was smart, quicker, quicker. All are related. You can’t be fast, smart and good if you’re not connected defensively.”
Guardiola admitted his thoughts had already turned to the midweek Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain before the end of the game and City needed two positive results to secure a place in the play-off rounds of this season’s new-look competition qualify.
“After four or five nil, I had my eye on Paris,” he confirmed. “We have a long journey to travel. I would like to thank our fans very much.
“Even away from home it’s not easy to get here, it’s a long journey and I’m really happy to perform for them in this way. You can go back, have a beer on the train and enjoy our moments together. Thank you.
“Whenever we go on these long journeys, they come with us. We will be back late and prepare for a finale. We have two finals, we win two and qualify, a win is very likely. We have to get the points because we caused ourselves problems, especially with Feyenoord.
“Even the game we lost in Lisbon. But at that moment we had a lot of problems. We couldn’t compete the way we wanted for many reasons. Hopefully we can continue at the next game in Paris.”