Pep Guardiola gets his wish in worst way as Man City crash out of Carabao Cup

Pep Guardiola wanted a performance intrinsic to Manchester City's DNA, one he could 'recognise.' He should have been careful what he wished for.

For a third year in a row, City won't be winning the tournament that has become synonymous with Guardiola's reign. They fell to a 1-0 defeat against Newcastle United with Alexander Isak clinching the game just after the break.

Yet, despite losing, Guardiola did get what he asked for. The Blues boss made it clear ahead of the match that he would be forced to make changes, despite really wanting to advance in the tournament. But what was more important than the win was a performance he could be proud of, one that maintains the club's identity.

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That's not what he got last season when his side crashed out of the cup to Nathan Jones' Southampton. A rare atrocious performance that ultimately cost them the chance of winning an unprecedented quadruple and one Guardiola admitted was the worst during his time at the club.

"What you want to try to do is to not perform bad or not in terms of the principles of who we are as a team like happened against Southampton last season," he said ahead of the match. "It was the worst game I played as manager of Man City by far, so I didn’t recognise anything about that.

"You can lose. Of course, you can lose. Full credit to Southampton in that game but you have to be a minimum, that is all I want from my team every game, tomorrow it is going to happen."

The manager got the exact opposite, a performance almost too typical of City. For better and worse. In the first half, they were excellent. All the players Guardiola called upon so his top stars