Trailing 1-0 against Everton at halftime on Wednesday, Manchester City did not much look like the newly crowned FIFA Club World Cup champions, despite the new golden FIFA badge on the front of the players’ shirts.
However, Pep Guardiola had a simple message to his players at the break.
“The manager [told us] at halftime to just keep believing, we haven’t got this badge for no reason,” Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden said. “In the second half, yeah, wow, I think we blew them away with the way we played.”
Photo: Reuters
Foden started the comeback by equalizing in the 53rd minute before Julian Alvarez’s penalty and a late goal by Bernardo Silva secured a 3-1 win to put the defending champions back into the Premier League’s top four.
“That’s why we’re the world champions. The best team in the world,” Guardiola said with a smile in a post-game interview on Amazon Prime. “Now I’m going to remind them every day. We have a standard to keep.”
The trip to Saudi Arabia for the Club World Cup was perhaps a bit of a distraction and allowed rivals Liverpool and Arsenal to widen the gap at the top.
Photo: Reuters
However, Manchester City now can now fully refocus on the task of winning an unprecedented fourth straight Premier League title and this was a vital first step in showing that they cannot be counted out despite a recent poor run of form.
They are five points behind leaders Liverpool with a game in hand, while Arsenal had a chance to go six points ahead of Guardiola’s team in their game against West Ham United, which was to start after press time last night.
“We know after six games with just one win, the people were asking, which is normal because it is all about results,” Guardiola said about his team’s recent run. “I have a feeling this team, we’re going to be there.”
Even with Erling Haaland still out with a foot injury, Manchester City showed that they have more than enough attacking threat to turn things around against a team who had beaten Newcastle United and Chelsea in their past two league home games.
However, it came as a cost as centerback John Stones went off with an ankle injury before halftime.
“It doesn’t look good, but we will see,” Guardiola said about the injury.
League victories at Stamford Bridge have been hard to come by for Chelsea this year, but their final home game of the year ended in a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace after substitute Noni Madueke converted a late penalty for the hosts.
It was just Chelsea’s sixth home league win of the calendar year.
The Blues took the lead through Mykhailo Mudryk in the 13th minute, but they missed several chances to double their advantage before Michael Olise equalized just before the break.
Just as it looked like Chelsea’s inefficiency up front would cost it again, Madueke was tripped by Eberechi Eze inside the area and stepped up to the spot himself to send goalkeeper Dean Henderson the wrong way in the 89th minute.
Meanwhile, Brentford might need to start worrying about a relegation scrap after Thomas Frank’s team fell to a sixth loss in seven games after making a couple of defensive howlers in a 4-1 home defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
South Korea forward Hwang Hee-chan scored twice as Wolves took full advantage of Brentford’s mistakes, including one that came straight after the kickoff following the visitors’ opening goal.
Nathan Collins’ back-pass to goalkeeper Mark Flekken was underhit, allowing Hwang to round him and tap into an empty net barely 10 seconds after the restart.
Brentford are in 14th place, just four points outside the relegation zone, while Wolves climbed to 11th.
‘AWFUL PERFORMANCE’: Golden State were always chasing the game after failing to threaten from long range, making just eight of 33 three-point attempts Aaron Gordon on Monday scored 38 points as the Denver Nuggets shrugged off the absence of Nikola Jokic to halt the Golden State Warriors’ seven-game winning streak with a 114-105 victory over their Western Conference rivals. A dazzling display from Gordon inspired what was ultimately a comfortable win for Denver, who were missing regular starters Jokic and Jamal Murray from their lineup. The absentees were barely felt by Denver, who startled the Warriors early at San Francisco’s Chase Center and led for most of the game. The Warriors threatened to stage a late rally after slashing the Nuggets’ fourth-quarter lead from 15 points
The US’ bid for a fourth consecutive CONCACAF Nations League title came to a stunning end as they fell 1-0 to Panama after a stoppage-time goal from Cecilio Waterman on Thursday in Inglewood, California. Despite dominating possession, the US struggled to break down a resilient Panama side for long periods. Panama spent the bulk of the match defending, but pounced on a giveaway by the US before substitute forward Waterman sent a shot from the right side of the area to the bottom left corner late in stoppage time. Up next for Panama in tomorrow’s final is to be Mexico, who beat
Barcelona’s Ferran Torres scored twice on Sunday to help secure a late 4-2 comeback win at Atletico Madrid in a pulsating La Liga clash that took the Catalan side back to the top of the table. Barca have 60 points and a game in hand after last week’s postponement of their home game with CA Osasuna. They are level on points with Real Madrid, who won 2-1 at Villarreal on Saturday. “I am happy and proud of this team,” Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick told a news conference. “They never give up... It’s a great three points and we are happy to
Chris Wood has fired Nottingham Forest into surprise UEFA Champions League contention and now the striker wants to score the goals to help New Zealand make history at the FIFA World Cup. New Zealand are strong favorites to qualify out of the Oceania region over the next week and reach the World Cup for only the third time. At the country’s two previous appearances at the finals, in 1982 and 2010, they have failed to win a match in six attempts. With Wood captaining the side and leading from the front, he told local media yesterday that the current squad can finally deliver
RSS