Pep Guardiola criticises Manchester City’s wasteful finishing after a 0-0 draw at Sunderland leaves them four points behind Arsenal in the title race.
PEP Guardiola said Manchester City paid for sloppy finishing in a damaging 0-0 draw away to Sunderland on Thursday.
The result dealt a major blow to City’s Premier League title hopes as they squandered several clear chances.
Savinho and Josko Gvardiol were especially culpable with costly second-half misses against a tenacious Sunderland.
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Second-placed City are now four points behind leaders Arsenal, having missed a chance to close the gap to two points.
“The amount of chances we missed in the six-yard box, not difficult ones, we could not convert,” Guardiola said.
He said the team created enough opportunities but failed to capitalise in a spluttering display.
City’s eight-match winning run in all competitions came to an end at the Stadium of Light.
Sunderland extended their unbeaten home league run to 10 games since promotion last season.
Guardiola conceded the result left his players feeling low ahead of Sunday’s match against Chelsea.
“Sunderland are so physical. They’re so strong, so it’s not a surprise at that. We take the point,” he said.
He urged his squad to be “heads up” for the difficult visit of Chelsea, who sacked boss Enzo Maresca on Thursday.
City improved after Rodri came on as a half-time substitute for his first appearance since early November.
Keeping the injury-plagued Spain midfielder fit is seen as essential to catching Arsenal.
“The first half, we struggled against their pressing, but in the second half Rodri gave us the second pass, to break the lines, and we could run,” Guardiola added. – AFP
