Debutant McNair, under pressure from Kelechi Iheanacho, turned the ball past keeper Vito Mannone in the 87th minute to deny Sunderland a point after Jermain Defoe’s nerveless second-half finish had cancelled out Sergio Aguero’s early penalty.
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It seems Hart-less to axe a player who has been part of the first team for so long, but Guardiola has already proved not to carry any extra weight, with pizzas banned and Samir Nasri made to train with the reserves because he represented a body double of “Robel the Whale” at his pre-season training return.
“I think we had a lot of chances we could have taken that I’m sure we will look to correct and we will be disappointed that we didn’t take more goals and deserved the start that we got”.
“The first games are always hard”, said former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager Guardiola.
“It was gutwrenching, because we did a great job in containing them as best we could”, said the ex-Man U boss. The match was equally important for Pep as it was for the Citizens because for many, it was an indication of whether Guardiola would survive in the madhouse that is the Premier League.
Speaking to the Chronicle, he admitted the result was “gutwrenching” and explained that his side “did a great job in containing them as best we could”, because they “had a gameplan, we knew we weren’t going to have an very bad lot of the ball and we had just about done the job – but “just about” is not enough”.
“The first half was hard for us and we didn’t play well”, said Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino.
But Guardiola said: “I don’t have any complaints about these names”. Strangely enough when I pulled the boy yesterday he didn’t know anything about his statement.
Sunderland manager David Moyes, who succeeded Sam Allardyce last month, expressed frustration that his side had not been able to hold on for a point. He was great today, he was great yesterday. “We’ve not hidden anything”.
Aug 13 Leicester City became the first English league champions for 27 years to begin their title defence with a loss as they went down 2-1 at Hull City on Saturday and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City reign started with a 2-1 win over Sunderland.
He said: “It was gut-wrenching”. We knew we wouldn’t get an terrible lot of the ball, but we’d just about done the job.
“I’m very pleased about the performance we achieved”. I think we backed off too much and allowed the ball to be played across the six-yard box, which made it really hard whether it be a defender or a striker with a great chance of scoring a goal or an own goal. So I am really impressed with the quality of Sammy.
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Three of Moyes’ four summer signings featured, Donald Love starting at right-back, and Adnan Januzaj and McNair coming off the bench, but the latter’s debut will be remembered for the own goal he scored just three minutes and 35 seconds after coming on.
