Pep Guardiola watched as his Manchester City team deservedly lost 2-1 to Newcastle United.
A match where, had United taken some of their other big chances, the margin of victory could and should have been greater.
Pep Guardiola clearly found it difficult to accept defeat and showed that clearly at St James’ Park yesterday, during and after the defeat.
Manchester City had lost just one of their last fourteen games in all competitions, winning eleven of them.
Great to see Newcastle United perform so brilliantly and be well worth the win.
Pep Guardiola reflects on Newcastle 2 Manchester City 1:
“We gave everything.
“We wanted to take a step like we have done in the last two months… but this is not an easy place to get to after the international break.
“There is still a long, long, long way to go.
“It was an exciting match, with chances for both teams.
“Gigio (Donnarumma) was extraordinary, we missed chances, we were better in the second half, we conceded a goal, and after substituting from both sides (wide players), we couldn’t get a result in the end”
Pep Guardiola confronted match referee Sam Barrott after the final whistle, but was keen to play it down when asked:
“Everything’s fine. Everything’s fine. It is what it is.”
Gianluigi Donnarumma was shown a yellow card after his lengthy exaggerated protests when he failed to get a free-kick due to a minor contact with Harvey Barnes in the build-up to Newcastle’s winning goal. Pep Guardiola asked about his goalkeeper:
“He felt a touch…but the VAR and the referees decided the opposite, we are used to it.”
Pep Guardiola then added:
“The last five questions were about referees and the actions… ask the referees.
“I don’t come here to talk about referees, it’s gone.
“It (Donnarumma not getting a free-kick in the build-up to a goal) didn’t happen against Bournemouth so it’s normal that it didn’t happen today.”
Pep Guardiola asked at the end of the match how he confronted Bruno Guimaraes and he (Guardiola) was clearly angry:
“I asked Bruno (Guimaraes) what happened to Gigio (Donnarumma) and him and I think it’s fine.”
My thoughts
I think this is definitely an example of Pep Guardiola trying, to some extent, to get back at what we all clearly saw as being the case.
Pep Guardiola with severe bad loser syndrome, has never lost to Eddie Howe in the Premier League and has usually won against Newcastle United and then all smiles and praise for losers NUFC.
We all saw first-hand how Pep Guardiola expressed his anger at both the referee and Bruno Guimaraes as he struggled to deservedly let his team lose, knowing that if Arsenal beat Spurs today they would be seven points ahead of Man City.
Guardiola curbed the behavior we all witnessed BUT at the same time still made it clear that he and his team were being treated poorly by the match officials.
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