Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has hailed Bournemouth as the best attacking side he has faced this season despite his team claiming a comfortable 4-0 victory against the Cherries on Saturday.
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“When we talk about (Lionel) Messi, maybe he can sit alone in the table, with no-one else allowed”.
Guardiola said, “Bournemouth was until now the best team, who create more problems when they have the ball”.
‘He makes everything. Without the ball he’s the first fighter, and with the ball it’s clear he sees absolutely everything.
“He’s there, making every decision, calling all the shots and getting a great performance out of them”, he added. That is why he is a player on another level. My target is now to be happy today, drink a little bit of wine and prepare the [next] game – and of course I am going to try to win that League Cup game [at Swansea City], there is no doubt about that. Hopefully he can enjoy with us to play his incredible football.
MANCHESTER CITY (4-1-4-1): Bravo 7; Sagna 7, Otamendi 7 (Stones 52, 7), Kolarov 8, Clichy 7; Fernandinho 8; Sterling 8, DE BRUYNE 9 (Garcia 75), Gundogan 8 (Sane 72), Nolito 6; Iheanacho 8.
Speaking to journalists following the win over the Cherries, the City boss also moved to temper expectations inflated courtesy of the team’s ideal start and emphasised that he doesn’t place much stock in records.
“We are so lucky that we have Kevin de Bruyne with us”, Guardiola told reporters.
Sanchez calmed any jitters in the Arsenal ranks when he rifled the ball high into the net and Granit Xhaka made it 4-1 with a bullet finish from distance in stoppage time, putting the London club second in the table on 10 points.
Throughout his stellar coaching career, 45-year-old Spaniard Guardiola has managed some of the world’s finest players, including Xavi and Andres Iniesta at Barcelona and Arjen Robben and Thomas Muller at Bayern Munich.
Howe said: “It was hard for Jack. We want to see Jack in the final third to use his best qualities”, said Howe.
“They have quality and when we let them play, they have a lot, a lot, a lot of quality”.
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Central to the impressive performance was the 25-year-old Belgium global, signed by City from Wolfsburg for big money in August 2015, having been deemed surplus to requirements by Guardiola’s fierce rival Jose Mourinho at Chelsea earlier in his career.
