After Manchester City’s second win in a row, Pep Guardiola warned that his side had not played well, lacked composure and were still a long way from returning to their confident best.
City followed an unconvincing 2-0 win over Leicester City last week with a 4-1 home win on Sunday against West Ham United that wasn’t as comfortable as the result suggests.
West Ham had the best chances in the opening ten minutes before a fortuitous own goal from Vladimir Coufal gave City the lead. Erling Haaland gave the defending champions a 2-0 lead with a first-half header after a great build-up play by Savinho, while a second goal from the Norwegian and a pass from Phil Foden increased the lead to four goals within the first hour.
Niclas Fullkrug reduced the deficit for the visitors, who had lost their last two games by an aggregate score of 1-9, but City’s coach was also concerned about his team’s performance. “You judge the results,” Guardiola told the assembled media at his post-match press conference. “Our performance wasn’t good. We have seen our level in many years. We’re not at our level.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m so happy. I’ll sleep better until the FA Cup.” But he asked if the old Manchester City and our style of play are back? No. You have to know that. You’ve seen the games. We haven’t been at this level for years.
“Of course there are an incredible number of positive things. But if you ask me that the team plays like it did years ago, no, definitely not.”
West Ham coach Julen Lopetegui agreed his side had put in a decent performance – especially compared to last weekend’s 5-0 defeat to Liverpool. “The game today was very, very different [to Liverpool]”said the pressured coach. “We didn’t take advantage of our clear situations.”
“There were glimpses of brilliance,” admitted Guardiola. “The work ethic was incredible, but still not the composure. We speed everything up. We’ve been struggling with results lately but the last two wins are good and we haven’t lost in three games.”
The Premier League champions will host fourth division side Salford City in the third round of the FA Cup next Saturday. The club, supported by a host of former Manchester United players, will be hoping Manchester City are still in search of their best selves at the Etihad.