There will be more important games to come for Manchester City this season, but the 2-1 defeat to Brentford certainly came at one of the worst possible times. The City boss admitted they had failed to get to grips with Brentford tactically on Saturday, especially forward Ivan Toney, and there will be plenty of analysis to look at what went wrong during the break, but he will also take the time to analyse the first 22 games as a whole ahead of the resumption.
Pep Guardiola said: “People go to their national team, they will be focused, it is a dream for them, it’s a World Cup. We have time to reflect, the staff, what we are doing good, what we could do better and, after, the Carabao Cup and Leeds, the first (league) game. And we will see how people come back. People say many things, the Premier League is difficult, we are going to try to come back good and fight for that.”
City are expected to head Abu Dhabi on December 5 for a six-day training camp, which could involve a friendly while they are over there. With Arsenal winning on Saturday night, City are now five points behind Mikel Arteta’s side in the title race, but Guardiola is happy with how the first stage of the campaign has gone.
Pep Guardiola said: “It’s been good. Before today. We go with that feeling that we lost, it’s always more difficult, but that’s the reality of this competition. We finish [qualify] in the Champions League and the Carabao Cup we’re through and the Premier League we’re close to Arsenal who have been really, really good. And now we will be a little bit behind but it is what it is. So the second part of the season will dictate how we are, how we are playing to do it.”
Arsenal are looking increasingly likely to be involved in the title race, having won 12 of their first 14 Premier League games. Guardiola admits they have been the best team in the league so far this season but is hopeful his side will be involved in the race in the New Year.
Pep Guardiola said: “I don’t know, hopefully we can be there. We will try. Now we come back, all the people come back, and after we try to see.”
