Pep Guardiola drew first blood in his renewed managerial duel with Jose Mourinho as Manchester City deservedly won an absorbing Premier League derby 2-1 against Manchester United at Old Trafford here Saturday.
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DERMOT SAYS: It is not a penalty for me, it is too close, he has got his back to the ball and it has got to be deliberate – I see players all the time put their hands behind their backs in order to stop being hit by the ball. So I’m looking forward to Vincent and Gundogan coming back, because we need them all. I think in the first half we deserved to be losing and in the second half we don’t deserve to be losing.
Talking about Kompany, Guardiola said: “He has something in his muscle and we believe that was a problem for the many injuries”.
Signed late in the transfer window, Bravo has spent most of the last two weeks on global duty and only had two training sessions with his new teammates. He also said that this should have no impact on what happens at the end of the season.
Boss Jose Mourinho agreed a number of players were below-par against Man City.
Pep Guardiola’s City took a deserved 15th-minute lead when Kevin De Bruyne beat Blind to Kelechi Iheanacho’s flick-on before steering a shot past David de Gea.
“For me the next big game is against Feyenoord and the next game (Rashford) is going to play”, Mourinho told reporters.
City face Borussia Monchengladbach in the Champions League on Tuesday before hosting Bournemouth four days later.
“Let’s say our team didn’t play well in the first half and the responsibility is my responsibility”. We started the game bad, with some players really below their normal level in terms of their concentration.
We are adults. He is a father and I am a father. We create, but in front we need more.
The honeymoon period at the former Olympic Stadium is well and truly over as the party atmosphere generated by moving into a state-of-the-art ground and paying just a fraction of its cost got the better of West Ham.
Guardiola felt after a “good” first-half showing his team had ended up being “lucky” to win – something that certainly appeared to apply to goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, who had an error-strewn City debut. Rashford came on in the second half and looked like he was playing for the U18s against Salford City.
“We lost the ball very, very easy”.
“They had the ball, I wanted to control that and I was not able to”.
“But if it was a sport like basketball or this kind of stuff, then I would have done more. But it’s what I am”. It was Guardiola’s eighth win over Mourinho in their 17 meets.
He said: “I came here. What I did see is Kolarov is missing one tooth – that is sure”.
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“We’re happy. These guys have a heart”.
