Pep Guardiola managed to escape a major embarrassment
Pep Guardiola managed to escape a major embarrassment in his first ever Premier League game, as Manchester City secured a late 2-1 win over Sunderland on Saturday.
City were taking on Sunderland with a great record over the north-east outfit at the Etihad stadium. It looked like City were going to breeze through yet another victory when Sergio Aguero converted a penalty after just three minutes. However, Sunderland managed to stay in the game since City were extremely poor in the final third of the pitch.
They did not create much opportunities and it was clear that the team needed more time in order to play to the instructions of Guardiola. David Silva was one of the creative playmakers on the pitch along with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne. Even though they tried to pass their way through a stubborn Sunderland defence, it was not the resulting in clear-cut chances for the attackers. Part of the reason was that David Moyes set up his team in such a way as to frustrate the home team even on the opening day. Sunderland had ten men behind the ball most of the time and they took advantage of their lucky break in the second half through Jermain Defoe.
It was only Paddy McNair’s unlucky one goal that led to a win for City.
"Sometimes you are a little lucky. We should have been a bit more aggressive but these kind of things have to happen to know how to get better in the next game. I'm very pleased about the performance. The second half we played really well. Maybe we should attack quicker. We have to learn," said Guardiola. The attention now focuses on the Champions League, which will be the ultimate objective for the Spaniard especially after having failed to win the title during his time at Bayern Munich.