Pep Guardiola needs to keep his cool if Atlético test City’s patience again

There was a glaring reveal towards the end of Manchester City’s deserved victory over Atlético Madrid on Tuesday. With Jack Grealish on the floor Ángel Correa smashed the ball into the No 10’s face. It was on the touchline. It was right by Pep Guardiola. And Manchester City’s manager did not like it at all.

So: he entered the pitch and shoved Correa. He stuck up for his player. Bravo. He might also have been booked or even sent off. But Istvan Kovacs ignored the seething 51-year-old and booked Correa.

Here, though, was what poker players call the “tell” and a collector’s item as Guardiola has been über-serene recently, zen-like since around this time last season. Yes, he is still seen frantically semaphoring on the touchline or unloading the mother and father of rollockings to, say, Raheem Sterling (it is often Sterling) directly after the forward has finished the latest sublime City goal. Or giving John Stones or Aymeric Laporte an impromptu lecture on some geometric nuance of centre-back play they must apply when stepping into midfield.

Yet these moments are kept to his own players. Long gone are the days when the head coach’s lack of control over his side and himself had him in curt (some might say rude) form with BBC reporter Damian Johnson following a 2-1 win over Burnley in January of his first season with City in 2017. Two weeks later came the admission that “maybe I am not good enough” for City on the eve of a 2-2- draw at Tottenham. And directly after that result he showed more prickles when another reporter from the BBC – Guy Mowbray – was challenged, oddly, that “the first question is about the referee? It’s BBC – BBC has prestige.”

Guardiola has calmed since. Three Premier League titles, a record 100-points,