Pep Guardiola praised the drive of his Manchester City players not to settle for what they have already achieved as they gear up for another fixture rush. If the City manager doesn’t want to look at the fixture list, he is reassured by how his players continue to react to the “beautiful challenge” they are presented with.
Pep Guardiola said: “It was a really tough game against an incredibly well organised defensively team from Carlo [Ancelotti]. It was difficult to contact with the wingers because the full-backs were so close, they closed the gaps perfectly so it was not easy to find space. We conceded a goal and I don’t think another chance. We create enough to win for more margin. Goodison Park is always tough to come but incredibly satisfied again for the mentality, for a lot of wins in a row and that we still have the desire to play football – not to keep what we have but playing to get more and we got three points more today with a good performance. If you want to win titles or be there until the end we need all the squad. What I am impressed again the most is the solidarity of the guys who didn’t play – Ben [Mendy], John [Stones], Aleks [Zinchenko], Fernandinho – everyone is an incredible part of this. We have a terrible but incredible schedule ahead. We have Wolves and Southampton when we expected long weeks. We don’t have a long week all season and everyone is going to be involved. We need everyone.
