Manchester City: Pep Guardiola’s lopsided side clings to faint title hopes

“We made a change to make the players more dynamic, with Ryan and Jeremy [Doku] And an elephant [Foden]”But we couldn’t win the match,” Guardiola said in his post-match press conference.

“Maybe we can be more aggressive in the first half, but with the creativity, the crosses and the dribbles this season, we’re struggling. The team, they’ve done everything, but they need to be better in the final third, and that’s happened in many games this season.”

In response to a question about choosing Semenyu instead of Shirkey as No. 10, he said: “Certainly, for this role there is no one better than him.” [Cherki]. This is a bad choice, you can criticize me, I deserve it.

“Sometimes in order to achieve balance, we learn. We played Sharqi and Haaland – which is unbelievable, but we don’t have the stability teams in the Premier League should have. I’m trying to deal with that, and the team is still growing.”

“Ryan’s influence on the bench is unbelievable, but sometimes he doesn’t have the pace so we play with Semenyu. I’m still finding the best way to get stability and balance in the team.”

Haaland’s form is brought into sharp focus by the fact that he struggled against West Ham, a team against whom he has scored 11 goals in the Premier League – more than any other team.

“It’s not about a lack of goals,” Guardiola said about the Norwegian striker. “We need to create more. It will come back.”

City can’t win well, and they struggle to win ugly too.

They have lost just once in their last 18 league games, but in that period they have given up 10 points from a winning position – enough to cost them first place in the current standings.

In the games they have won, they have drawn with Chelsea, Brighton, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest and now West Ham.

Given that the latter came two hours after Arsenal’s Max Doman-starred, stunning win over Everton, this will sting.

Guardiola later laughed that he had been having a beer before the match rather than watching the Arsenal game with his team, as he had been suspended from the touchline.

He also joked that he would look to get more yellow cards because he prefers the view from the stands – and cheekily dismissed a question about whether Haaland was limping.

It was as if Guardiola didn’t laugh, he would cry.