Man City 4-1 West Ham: Pep Guardiola says 'old Man City' have definitely not return yet
2025-01-05
Category: sports

Consecutive wins for the first time since October. Scoring four goals in a Premier League for the first time since August. Erling Haaland's first league double since September.Has Saturday's 4-1 demolition of West Ham marked the return of the old Manchester City? 'Absolutely not' according to boss Pep Guardiola.The win leaves the defending champions sixth in the Premier League, just three points off third-placed Nottingham Forest, and offers welcome relief after a forgettable last couple of months.But, when asked if the result was a sign of his team regaining the form most people are used to seeing from them - following a run of two wins from 10 games - the Spaniard was unequivocal in his response."No," Guardiola, said. "You judge the results. Our performance was not good. We saw in many years our level. We are not at our level."Don't misunderstand me. I'm so happy. I will sleep better until the FA Cup [tie against Salford on 11 January]."But he asked if the old Manchester City and the way we play is back? No. You have to know it. You watched the games for years. We're not at the level, come on."Of course there are an incredible lot of positives. But if you ask me the team is playing like it has played the years ago, no, absolutely not."
'Savinho has something special'
Guardiola is a phenomenally hard task master. His standards are exacting and he has driven City on when they have been in the midst of those long winning streaks that have been such a hallmark of his eight-and-a-half incredibly successful seasons at the club.Yet the soul searching of the past few weeks has been so extensive, it did feel as though a comfortable win - even if West Ham did have some decent chances - was something to celebrate.While Guardiola rejected that theory, he was more expansive about Brazilian winger Savinho.A Â£30m arrival from fellow City Football Group club Troyes last summer, the 20-year-old has endured an inconsistent debut campaign.However, West Ham could not cope with his direct running. It was Savinho's cross that Coufal deflected into his own goal and another Haaland headed in for the second.Savinho also provided the through ball Haaland finished off for City's third, leading to fulsome praise from Guardiola."Having a left foot on the left side, like old fashioned vintage football, right in the right, left in the left, and these kinds of crosses helps the striker we have," he said."He has lot to improve. He is not aggressive enough without the ball and a little bit soft in many departments. But right now has something special and brilliant that helps the team a lot."
'We did not take advantage' - Lopetegui 
It was almost 1800 GMT when West Ham boss Julen Lopetegui turned up for his post-match media conference.The time was so late, journalist were starting to wonder whether the former Spain and Real Madrid boss had been sacked after following up a 5-0 home defeat by Liverpool with another loss.That proved not to be the case and, given Guardiola's assessment, it was possible to have some sympathy with Lopetegui's opinion that the contest was "hard to explain"."The match today was very, very different [to Liverpool]," he said. "We did not take advantage of our clear situations and have a very clear one when Summerville did not foul Akanji."Nevertheless, it was still a defeat that keeps West Ham in 13th and Lopetegui said he was "not optimistic" about the extent of the injury that forced Â£34m defender Jean-Clair Todibo off eight minutes into the second half.