The defending Premier League champions followed up on the stellar midweek display against Leeds United with a comfortable win at St James’ Park.
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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is understandably happy with seeing his team register a resounding 4-0 victory over Newcastle United on Sunday, as he went on to call it an “exceptional” result. However, the manager was not entirely pleased with the team’s performance – particularly in the first half. He believes his side can “do better” despite the convincing manner in which they won the match on Sunday. The defending Premier League champions followed up on the stellar midweek display against Leeds United with a comfortable win at St James’ Park.
As a result, Manchester City have managed the most wins (34) in a calendar year. “Good result,” he said when asked for his assessment at his post-match press conference. “Exceptional [result], in a not very good performance at all. We were lucky for the goal we scored at the beginning of the game. The second goal was a brilliant action from Joao [Cancelo], but the way we played in the first half was one of the poorest of the season.
“The first half was a dangerous position. The second half was much, much better. During the season this can happen. It’s normal. You can’t be brilliant all the time. We more than deserved the victory but we know we can do better and better. In these types of games you might not be so brilliant, but the simple things we missed, not the complicated ones. To take a result is so important in this long season ahead of us.”
Manchester City’s match against Newcastle United was one of four Premier League fixtures to go ahead this weekend, with the COVID-19 situation forcing six games to be postponed. On the back of 10 matches being called off in the last week, clubs will meet on Monday to discuss how best to proceed further.
“I will support the doctors and scientists and the Premier League’s decision,” he added. “I see people in the street, nobody wearing a mask, nobody social distancing. That’s why it will happen sooner or later.
“We try to create a good environment to realise the danger is still here. We have to try it knowing it’s not easy, it’s a problem worldwide that’s still there. The virus is there, the new variant. We will support what the Premier League decides.”
Manchester City attacker Riyad Mahrez believes the visitors thoroughly deserved all three points at St James’ Park. The Algerian scored his 50th goal for the club during the 4-0 Premier League victory against Newcastle United. He said: “Every game is a battle. It’s always good to score early in the game and that’s what we did. Overall it was a good game and we deserved to win.”
“We had a very good second half. The first half wasn’t very good but we still scored two goals and stayed solid, but the second half we played so good and deserved to score even more goals to get the win. We never gave them an opportunity, but I think it was still a tough battle. They were very aggressive. It wasn’t an easy game, obviously when you score two quick goals you make it easy for yourself.”
