Guardiola’s blushes were spared with a little help from the other half of Manchester, though, as McNair, who joined from United earlier this week, marked his debut with an own goal as Jesus Navas’s cross bounced in off his head.
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Guardiola, in his first competitive match in charge, had just four minutes to wait for the opening goal, as Aguero converted a penalty following Patrick van Aanholt’s rash challenge on Raheem Sterling.
Despite rarely seeing the ball, Sunderland restricted the hosts’ chances and will be buoyed by the quality of their goal – Defoe scoring in his 16th Premier League season by slotting home from a Jack Rodwell through-ball.
The City boss has given no indication that he is unhappy with Hart’s talents, application or mentality, but as feared when he first took the job, the England global doesn’t have the ability to play out from the back that Guardiola places a great importance on.
Manchester City pressed on for more goals in what turned out to be a largely uneventful second half, till Defoe tore up the script and scored the equalizer for Sunderland, only for new boy Paddy McNair to concede and own goal at the death and let City secure all three points. I needed us to be aggressive without the ball. For the first game there were so many good things that I didn’t expect to see.
Asked why he chose the 34-year-old Argentine, who had not started for City since early April, Guardiola said: “I think he had a good pre-season, he gave me a lot of confidence, he has personality and that is why I chose him”.
With $200 million spent on new players and Guardiola arriving from Bayern Munich to manage an already impressive lineup, City is the hot favorite to win the league this season.
Moyes concluded: “I’ve said to the players that they have to play like that in every game”, and believes “They’ve set the standard for effort and commitment and they’ll be getting it from me if they drop below that”.
Guardiola was relieved to pick up three points from his first Premier League game.
John Stones made an assured debut at centre-back for City – playing alongside Aleksandar Kolarov, whose unfamiliarity with the role was evident at times throughout the contest. We did a great job in containing them as best we could.
Support from a manager like that is the type of thing the England man needs, especially given the stick he receives on social media and from opposition fans, and we may have seen the consequences of that support on Saturday.
“This is the best way to start and we have a lot of days to keep improving”.
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“But overall I thought the players did really well”. I was training very well during the pre-season to have this opportunity.
