Pep Says City Can Improve Following 4-1 Thumping Of Stoke

It might not have been a cold, wet night at the Britannia but it was windy and frenetic and Pep Guardiola got the job done. It’s safe to assume that this lays to rest the argument of whether Pep Guardiola’s ball hogging methods will work against physical teams such as Stoke.

To be sure, referee Mike Dean was the center of attention on Saturday afternoon with two penalty calls which reflected the Premier League’s new rules.

It ensured Sergio Aguero put city ahead with a penalty and he completed his brace a few minutes later, heading in from De Bruyne’s sublime freekick.

Stoke were gifted a penalty of their own in the second half as they cut the lead down to one goal and chased an equalizer. With the clock winding down, City’s high pressing paid off, allowing Iheneacho to lay a pass to Nolito for the third.

Nolito also grabbed his brace after another layup from Sterling.

City’s head coach, Pep Guardiola praise his players after the match; “We have had a short time together and in spells in our last three games my players have shown me how intelligent they are,” “They are really good players with a lot of quality which they have shown here in one of the toughest places in the Premier league – at least people told me that.

“We saw again an amazing team spirit, how they communicate between each other, how they celebrated the goals and how they celebrated afterwards with the fans. That is the first step.

“We will improve many things but I am little bit surprised in the short time the level we played in Bucharest and here. To win 4-1 here is very good and we have scored nine goals in two games. It was a nice week for us.”