“I think he would like to win individual prizes – because every player does – but I already think he is happy”.
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– Action Images via Reuters / Carl Recine Livepic MANCHESTER, Sept 18 – Pep Guardiola is refusing to get carried away by Manchester City’s outstanding start to the season and insists maintaining it will not be easy. “But in the table beside, Kevin can sit there”.
The Cherries have managed just one win from their opening five league games, and sit perilously just two spots above the relegation zone. “Without the ball he is the first fighter”.
“Yes, I give them a lot of credit for the way they played but I felt we could have done better without the ball and definitely better with the ball”.
“And Bournemouth were until now the best team with the ball (we have faced) – the other teams have played long balls”.
His team-mates were good value for matching that scoreline, to move two points clear at the top of the table, although a red card for Nolito after the Spain forward clashed tempestuously with Adam Smith slightly blotted another highly-satisfactory afternoon at the helm for Guardiola.
James McClean steered home a ball from Chadli to make it 3-0 before halftime, and the 27-year-old Belgian made it four 11 minutes into the second half when he finished a counterattack by firing Rondon’s pass into the net.
Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe didn’t think his side were at their best and said they were punished by an excellent City side.
“It was a tough day – Manchester City were excellent”, he said. Theo Walcott eventually doubled Arsenal’s lead 10 minutes into the second half, latching onto a neat back-heel by Iwobi.
“Fair play to them”.
“I’m feeling great at the moment”, Iheanacho told Manchester City website. They went down 1-0 at home to Middlesbrough on Saturday and last season, they might have lost such a game – exacerbated by the fact that they reportedly rarely practiced set pieces for example. To say it was all route one might be a bit harsh though, so perhaps we’re all reading far too much into this. But I don’t really look at the result, I look at the performance and overall I was disappointed.
Their opener on 15 minutes was another special.
“It was hard for Jack”, Howe said.
“We knew we had to come back to the Premier League and had to carry on from where we left off in the Champions League”, Leicester midfielder Danny Drinkwater said.
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“So we are who we are and we are so, so lucky we have Kevin with us”.
