Pep Guardiola happy as Manchester City beat West Ham but ‘performance not good’
Erling Haaland struck twice as the champions secured back-to-back Premier League victories for the first time since October.
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Your support makes all the difference.Pep Guardiola welcomed the win but felt his Manchester City side were still far from their best after beating West Ham 4-1 on Saturday.
Erling Haaland struck twice as the champions rediscovered their goalscoring touch at the Etihad Stadium to secure back-to-back Premier League victories for the first time since October.
The result took more heat off City after they claimed only their second win in 14 games in all competitions at Leicester last week, but Guardiola does not feel his team are back to their old selves yet.
The City manager said: “We saw in many years our level and we are not at our level. We won, I am so happy and it helps us.
“But you judge results, (when) our performance was not good.
“I’m so happy for the guys, and the work ethic, but in the first minutes deserved to be 0-1, 0-2 and we were lucky with the first goal.
“We are a strong team (when) we run a lot and have the composure, but now we don’t have it.
“I’m very pleased for the result but you cannot ask me if the old City is back. If you saw the game, we are not.
“You saw many times during the years what we have done with the opponents.”
West Ham spurned two gilt-edged chances to take the lead before City went ahead when Vladimir Coufal turned Savinho’s cross into his own net.
Phil Foden got on the scoresheet for the hosts too but their best player was in-form winger Savinho, who also set up both of Haaland’s goals.
Guardiola said: “Has a lot to improve – he’s not aggressive enough without the ball, he’s a little bit soft in many departments, but right now has something special and brilliant that helps the team a lot.
“He ‘scored’ a goal, was a bit lucky, but the two assists were brilliant. I’m so happy for him and he deserves to play.”
West Ham’s defeat, coming after a 5-0 thrashing at Liverpool, did nothing to ease the pressure on manager Julen Lopetegui, especially with his predecessor David Moyes spotted in the crowd.
The former Real Madrid and Spain boss could, however, bemoan his luck after early missed chances by Mohammed Kudus and Tomas Soucek, while Crysencio Summerville was harshly penalised for a foul when clean through.
Lopetegui, whose side did manage a consolation through Niclas Fullkrug, said: “It is not easy to explain the match. We deserved more in my opinion. A lot of little details worked against us.
“Not only did we not take advantage of two clear situations – we have to do better – but after they scored one goal we were very unlucky.
“We had a very clear situation with Summerville on (Manuel) Akanji. It was not a foul but the referee said foul. It was an unfair situation.
“We did very good things and positive things, but in the end it was not enough.”