Guardiola thankful for a win in his 1000th game in charge, calls it an “incredible present” given by his team.
In his 1,000th game as manager, Pep Guardiola hailed Manchester City for the “incredible present” of a 3-0 victory over Liverpool while praising Jürgenmy Doku.
Erling Haaland and Nico González’s goals in the first half and Doku’s spectacular 20-yard solo effort in the second half brought City within four points of Premier League leaders Arsenal.
Virgil van Dijk’s header was disallowed as halftime approached because Andy Robertson, who was positioned in front of City custodian Gianluigi Donnarumma, was found to have interfered with play.
This was Guardiola’s 716th career victory and the former Bayern Munich and Barcelona manager said: “Thank you to the players and staff for giving me an incredible present against the most important opponent we faced in my time here. It has been a special night with my kids here.”
Of Doku, Guardiola said: “I think he will never be a top scorer, to be honest, but he’s demanding himself to be better, he listens, and has special attributes of dribbling. He was aggressive with and without the ball. We tried to help him and he played an outstanding game.”
Guardiola, for whom this was a 550th game as City’s manager, was asked about Arsenal dropping two points at Sunderland on Saturday. “I think Liverpool and us said: ‘Oh wow, Arsenal dropped points finally and conceded two goals.’ But I said to the players not to do it because yesterday Arsenal didn’t win. Do it because we believe in ourselves that we can play against the champions of England and show them we are ready to be there with them this season. Today we proved it – especially in the first half.”