Manchester City vs Celtic: Pep Guardiola wants more time as he reflects on the Chelsea bunfight

Guardiola is expected to ring the changes for the game with Celtic

Guardiola refused to blame his defence for the loss against Chelsea (Getty)

Enough dust had settled on the chaotic finale to a punishing home defeat at Chelsea’s hands for Pep Guardiola to have worked out how to put a gloss on things and it was quite some sheen that he conjured up.

His Manchester City side had reached the requisite level of football “faster” than either his Bayern Munich players or those at Barcelona, where “we had one player who was amazing and helped us create those steps,” he said. The most promising side he’s ever taken on, he seemed to be saying.

But Guardiola could only do so much to disguise the fact that this was propaganda. Make no mistake: he was hurting, 48 hours on from the 3-1 defeat which saw Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho dismissed at the death.

The Spaniard was tetchy when he sat down to talk and monosyllabic to begin with. “Which kind of reflections do you want?” he shot back when asked to discuss Saturday, taking what seemed like an eternity to reply when asked who was responsible for those two red cards.

“The players,” he replied.

“But everything that happened? What was trigger?” someone replied.

“The players.”

“Just them..?”

“The fans… you… me.”

To a substantial degree, the root cause of all the trouble – and the scoreline which left Guardiola throwing the kitchen sink at Antonio Conte’s side late on Saturday – is the defence. City have lavished more money of defenders these past few years than virtually any other club in world football and yet have kept one clean sheet in 15 games.

He denied this was a problem of course, though in the course of his anatomy of the defeat, you could also trace the slightest lines of insecurity about whether his philosophy of attacking in numbers, limiting pragmatism and maintaining that high defensive line will work in the Premier League.

“To [master the ability to] attack with 10 players and not to concede the counter attack, you need time,”Guardiola explained.

“It is easier to defend back and run [forward] 40 metres. But I did [this] all my career [and won’t change now.] Attack in small spaces and defend a bigger space. For that you need time but for sure when you are able to do it, you are more attractive and more safe. But of course we need time in a world you don’t have it…”

His way of approaching the game might remain sacrosanct, but in the make-up of his teams it is evident that he does not know which personnel might best equip him to make a success of things in England. If the success of Chelsea this season, and Leicester City last, tells us one thing, it is that a side can profit from being settled. While Conte has made eight changes to his Premier League starting line-ups this season, Guardiola has already made 46.

There will be more changes on Tuesday night as City face Celtic in a Champions League tie which is a dead rubber, since they cannot overhaul Barcelona as first place qualifiers and the Scots’ European adventure is over. There could be as many as 11 changes from the side which started against Chelsea, though Ageuro’s suspension until the New Year’s Eve match at Liverpool could persuade Guardiola to give him a run rather than rest him.

Aguero was shown his marching orders deep into extra-time at the Etihad Stadium (Getty)

With Fernandinho banned after picking up a red card in the last Champions League match at Borussia Monchengladbach, the prospects of Fabian Delph playing are substantial. Raheem Sterling did not even train on Monday so Tosin Adarabioyo, who is seen as Vincent Kompany’s possible successor, plus Spanish defenders Angelino and Pablo Maffeo, could feature.

At best, it is a week to pause, take stock and wait for the ongoing Premier League challenge which no one said would be easy.

“After [the wins at] Crystal Palace and Burnley I was a bit worried,” he said. “We won but I thought ‘if we play like this we are not going to go anywhere; that is not the way I want to play.’

“But I know I have to adapt to your football and accept many, many decisions and understand how you have to react in those situations especially in games like that. But sorry guys, I am not good enough to understand the way we have to play in that game, the opposition the external conditions… I need time.” His sign-off was the day’s mantra.

Possible line-ups:

City (4-1-4-1): Caballero; Zabaleta, Stones, Kolarov, Clichy; Fernando; Navas, Fernandinho, Delph, Sane; Aguero

Celtic (4-2-3-1): Gordon; Lustig, Simunovic, Toure, Izaguirre; Armstrong, Brown; Roberts, Rogic, Forrest; Dembele