Pep Guardiola cut an irate figure after Manchester City’s 2-1 loss to Newcastle United at St James’ Park. The former Barcelona manager got into an intense discussion with Newcastle captain Bruno Guimaraes, the match officials, and even a cameraman on Saturday night. The result also somewhat took the wind out of City’s Premier League title bid in a day to forget for the visitors.
A Harvey Barnes brace, either side of Ruben Dias’ strike, secured Newcastle all three points on home turf. But the game was not without controversy as City felt they should have been awarded a first-half penalty when Phil Foden went down in the box after a late tackle from Fabian Schar.
And there were question marks about Barnes’ second goal, as goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma claimed he had been fouled and Bruno may have been offside in the build-up. The loss means City could fall seven points behind table-toppers Arsenal on Sunday if they beat Tottenham in the north London derby.
At the full-time whistle, Guardiola got into a very animated chat with Bruno, with both individuals looking testy at times. The 54-year-old also appeared to argue with a cameraman as he struggled to keep his cool.
By the time he was interviewed, the ex-Bayern Munich manager gave little away.
When questioned on the matter, he said: “No questions, everything is fine. I said how good he [Bruno] is [but that conversation] is for private situations. Everything is fine.”
Despite being the top scorers in the Premier League with 24, Guardiola believes his team have to be more clinical in front of goal. They had 68 per cent possession and 17 shots to Newcastle’s nine, but only had four efforts on target. Moreover, they created an Expected Goals (xG) tally of 1.88 in a wasteful display that showed they cannot always rely on Erling Haaland, who has scored 14 of their league goals this term.
Guardiola added: “Tight game. Entertaining game. They had chances. We had chances. In the end they scored one more goal. Two or three chances that he [Haaland] always have because he is the best. And yeah, go to the next. Two or three chances that he always have because he is the best. And yeah, go to the next.”
