We will be back – Pep Guardiola knows he faces tough task to recreate ‘old City’

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola joked they will never be like “old City” this season but was pleased to see them survive a nervy finale to claim an important 1-0 victory at Tottenham.

Fit-again Erling Haaland only needed 12 minutes to make it 20 Premier League goals for the season, but squandered a number of other first-half chances to leave the match finely-poised at half-time.

It allowed Spurs to respond and Wilson Odobert failed to make the most of two opportunities, while Pape Sarr had a goalbound effort headed away by Josko Gvardiol before Haaland appeared to clinch the points in the fourth minute of stoppage time with a second.

A VAR check of three-and-a-half-minutes subsequently ruled the goal out for handball, which was followed by a gilt-edged opening being put over by Sarr with seconds left as City bounced back from Sunday’s loss to Liverpool to return to fourth spot.

“Never will be this season the old City,” Guardiola smiled. “Old City were too good, but we will be back.

“The game, it was open second half because we didn’t close the first. In this stadium always they have 20 to 25 minutes and second half we suffered, but should be close in the first one. That was the problem.

“It’s happened many times this season that we give away an unbelievable amount of goals and up front there are many games, like Champions League at Sporting we should be 1-3 or 1-4 in the first half and we lost 4-1. Many times it happens and today fortunately it finished good.”

Guardiola heaped praise on January recruit Abdukodir Khusanov for another assured defensive display after his horror debut against Chelsea last month before reflecting on Haaland’s disallowed effort.

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