Pep Guardiola has said that Manchester City’s loss to Chelsea in the Premier League was not due to the absence of injured players like Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne.
The reigning Premier League champions lost their first match of the season in the domestic competition as they went down by 2-0 against the Blues at Stamford Bridge.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said that the loss his side incurred against Chelsea had nothing to do with the absence of star players like Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero. Both the players were not able to play any part in the crucial encounter, which was won by the Pensioners as the Citizens tasted defeat for the first time in this season’s Premier League campaign.
The defeat also led them to slip down to the second position below Liverpool as the Reds won their contest against Bournemouth by 4-0. However, Pep Guardiola also said that his side’s performance was better than last season’s 1-0 loss at the hands of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
The City gaffer said, “It always happens when they are not here. When we won, nobody asked me about the people that are not here,” he told a post-match news conference. “Of course I would prefer to be with Aguero, Kevin, [Benjamin] Mendy and everybody, but the guys made an incredible performance today. If someone can assure me that if we had them we would have won… nobody knows.
“Now my feeling, knowing the opponent, the performance was outstanding. I have the feeling that last season when we won, this season we played better. But last season Kevin had the ball … and got the goal. Game over. Today we missed it a little bit. We will improve for next games, we have tough games [in the league] and in Europe in February.”
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