Pep Guardiola: ‘Except Liverpool, Brighton, Arsenal, Villa, Leeds; the rest sit back’

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola believes every team but a small handful now defends deep against his table-topping team.

The reigning Premier League champions were forced to dig deep to take all three points against Everton at Goodison Park, with Phil Foden finally breaking the home side’s stubborn resistance in the 82nd minute.

For City, the theme of teams defending deep and in huge numbers is nothing new, but are they retreating further and further back with each passing season?

‘Yeah,’ Guardiola replied. ‘Maybe we provoke them but most of them except Liverpool I would say, Brighton I would say, Arsenal in some moments I would say … let me think about it, maybe I’m forgetting someone.

“Aston Villa, we played there a little bit too. There are moments when they did it. But as a principle, when we make a good build-up, they sit.

“Leeds, as well. The rest, they sit back. But, honestly, I’m not saying nothing wrong. Every manager, every team can do whatever they want, absolutely.

“It’s in our hands how to break them — teams that are high pressing, how to do it, and when teams sit back, how we have to do it.

“And one of the principles is be patient, don’t concede goals, don’t concede deep runs from them, counter attacks and be patient and in the right moment we can do it. Let’s continue doing it like this.”

Guardiola expects to face similarly difficult challenges in the final 11 games of the campaign and feels his side could well need to win each one if we’re to lift the trophy again in May.

“Every game will be similar [to Everton], for sure,” he said following our win on Merseyside.

“Everyone plays to survive, for the Europa League, for the Champions League, to be champions. Every game will be a battle.

“We have spoken about that. It is not the first time we have been in this situation and we learn from the past.

“If you want to be champions in the Premier League against this rival – Liverpool are not going to drop points – you have to do a job in nearly all the games.

“I don’t know how it is going to finish, but we are going to try. Every game will be an incredibly tough battle and we have to face every game knowing if we drop points, it will be difficult to be champions.”