Bruising Man City defeats that pushed Pep Guardiola to record heights

Pep Guardiola was only interested in three points for Manchester City on Sunday, but the City Ground will always be a significant milestone for the decorated manager.

The home team were three up inside 20 minutes and Jamie Vardy made it 4-0 when he completed his hat-trick 12 minutes from time, only for two late City goals to give a glimpse of respectability to the scoreline. Worse was to follow afterwards, when Guardiola was widely mocked for his response to a question about City failing to win a tackle in the opening 35 minutes.

It turns out that you don't need to tackle if you don't give the opposition the chance to run at you with the ball.It was all going so spectacularly well for so long, but when the wheels fell off it was quite the sight. With Vincent Kompany leaving in the summer after winning the domestic quadruple, City didn't want to pay what Leicester wanted for Harry Maguire and refused to sign an alternative.

It has certainly worked, with just one defeat, two draws, and a 4-1 victory in the four meetings since. City's record at Anfield still isn't great, but they have stopped getting ripped apart.A year on from not signing Harry Maguire, City had spent another summer refusing to be drawn on a centre-back target despite the obvious shortcomings from the previous season. Kalidou Koulibaly had been extensively looked at, yet nothing agreed.

In from the cold came John Stones, going from effectively the fifth-choice centre-back to the perfect partner for Dias as the pair clubbed together to help City to their third league title in four years and their first-ever Champions League final.

Pep Guardiola

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