Pep Guardiola lauds Manchester City's 'exceptional' run but insists title glory still a long way away

Nuno Espirito Santo's Wolves difficult proposition for league leaders on Tuesday

John Stones of Manchester City celebrates with team mates Kyle Walker, Riyad Mahrez and Oleksandr Zinchenko after scoring his side's second goal against West Ham United at Etihad Stadium on Saturday, February 27, 2021. Getty

John Stones of Manchester City scores his team's second goal past Darren Randolph of West Ham. getty

Ruben Dias of Manchester City celebrates after scoring past goalkeeper Darren Randolph of West Ham. EPA

Manchester City's defender Ruben Dias, right, celebrates scoring the opening goal. AFP

West Ham's Jesse Lingard, left, celebrates after West Ham's Michail Antonio scores his side's opening goal. AP

Michail Antonio of West Ham scores against Manchester City. EPA

West Ham United's Darren Randolph receives medical attention. Reuters

Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne, front, duels for the ball with West Ham's Issa Diop. AP

West Ham United's manager David Moyes and Manchester City's boss Pep Guardiola. AFP

“Okay, another game, another record,” said Pep Guardiola. He was not being blase, just keen to stress he was not thinking about them. Landmarks are just the by-product of brilliance for Manchester City.

As it is, the record Guardiola could equal against Wolves on Tuesday is one he set. His City went a club-record 28 games unbeaten in 2017. Now 27 have elapsed since City lost at Tottenham in November.

They have won the last 20. They are closing in on Bayern Munich's record for any club in Europe's top five leagues of 23 consecutive victories. Yet if Guardiola is citing Bayern, it is because at the moment he politely disagrees with David Moyes' view that City are the continent's outstanding side.

“The best team in Europe is Bayern Munich because they won everything,” he explained.

“In England, the champions are Liverpool; they are the best. If you want to take the crown, you have to win it. In March, no one is champion. You have to do well and try and win it but we cannot deny the last two-and-a-half months were exceptional. Today, right now the champion is Liverpool, like in Europe it is Bayern Munich, and if you want this honour you have to win it.”

He thinks City are a long way to doing that, even though victory on Tuesday would put them 15 points clear at the top of the table, if only for 24 hours. If taking each game as it comes has helped propel them this far, their manager is adamant that they cannot get carried away. Their circumstances could change quickly.

“There are 36 points to play for,” he outlined. “When you have 10 points left, or 12 of 15, it is another issue but 36 is many. In England, every team can lose and lose and lose in a row in one week. The champion is Liverpool, we are not. To do it we still have to win eight, nine or 10 games and it’s a lot. There are incredible teams who struggle for four or five games to win games. It can happen to us too. Last season, it happened. At the beginning of the season, it happened. We were unable to win three games in a row in the first two months. That's why.”

City’s campaign started at Wolves, with a 3-1 victory that Guardiola called an “incredible result” for an injury-hit team who were deprived of a pre-season and who, he felt, struggled in the final half-hour.

Yet until their current sequence, they never won more than two consecutive league games. However, the fact that no one else has mustered more than four consecutive victories illustrates how hard it will be to catch City.

The chasing pack may take encouragement from City’s fixture list. Last season, Wolves became only the second team to do a double over a Guardiola side and Manchester United, City’s next opponents, then became the third. It may be why the Catalan sees the run-in as an obstacle course.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s system poses problems and City have had some difficulties against teams who play with three centre-backs. “It’s not three in the back, it’s five,” Guardiola countered. “They are so well-organised, with seven or eight behind the ball all the time, closing the spaces inside. They are always a difficult side.” Wolves held City in the Carabao Cup in 2017 and then the Premier League in 2018.

City’s winning run has been a triumph of the squad and Guardiola is likely to rotate. He could recall Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus, Bernardo Silva, Joao Cancelo, Aymeric Laporte and Rodri. He may have an eye on Sunday’s Manchester derby, but he will not look too much further ahead. The time to assess records, he feels, is in the summer.

“It is an incredible question and it will be a nice answer at the end of the season,” he said. “We are delighted with what we have done so far. We cannot deny it. If no team has done it before it means how difficult it is but at the end what counts is if you lift the trophies or not. It is not the numbers that count. Next season, we will defend the title or it will be another team.”