Pep Guardiola enigmatic in response to late Rico Lewis red after Manchester City held to draw at Crystal Palace
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Updated 07/12/2024 at 18:58 GMT
Pep Guardiola refused to elaborate on his cryptic response to Rico Lewis's late sending off, after Manchester City came from behind twice to draw 2-2 at Crystal Palace. The City manager insisted he was pleased with his players for their efforts and refused to be drawn into talk of challenging for the Premier League title. Bernardo Silva, however, admitted the squad were "not happy" with the point.
'We'll take the point' - Guardiola 'proud and pleased' as 10-man City draw at Palace
Video credit: SNTV
Pep Guardiola was enigmatic in his response to Rico Lewis’ late red card against Crystal Palace, as Manchester City dropped two points at Selhurst Park.
The 20-year-old’s sublime strike earned the visitors a 2-2 draw, after Daniel Munoz’s early opener was cancelled out by Erling Haaland’s first-half header.
Maxence Lacroix rose highest to put Palace back in front, but Lewis’ equaliser was overshadowed by his two second-half cautions that hampered City’s push for a winner.
His first for dissent was followed by a lunge on Trevoh Chalobah, and Guardiola was brief in his reaction to the 84th-minute sending off.
"It’s because it’s Rico," the City boss told BBC Sport.
Asked to repeat his answer, Guardiola stated: "It’s Rico" before asking, "It’s a yellow card?"
And pushed to elaborate, Guardiola reiterated: "It’s Rico Lewis."
The draw means City's 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest in midweek is their only victory in nine games.
After the Merseyside derby was postponed due to Storm Darragh, Manchester City sit eight points off league leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand.
And Guardiola would not be drawn into title talk after their latest slip, but admitted that his side "have to do more" even if he was satisfied with their performance.
He said: "I’ve said many times, we cannot talk about the title race when we lost four games in a row and now we draw, so it’s step by step and we try to win the next game and recover people and we’ll see in the last month. So that is our reality.
"We have to do more. I would say more games to be consistent but it’s difficult for the situation that we have. But I’m really pleased for the players.
"They fought and they did everything and I’m really pleased to work with them."
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Pep Guardiola remonstrates with Kyle Walker
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With Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji, John Stones, Mateo Kovacic, Oscar Bobb and Rodri all sidelined for the fixture, Guardiola took heart from the way his team fought back twice.
"We take the point," Guardiola said. "We fought incredible. We came back twice and the players again, they showed how good they are.
"We have been [showing character] all season and we will be until the end. It is the season to suffer and stay there. Then we will see what happens in the last month.
"We tried. Big compliments to our opponents who are really good here at Selhurst Park, but we behaved good."
Silva ‘not happy’ with two points dropped
Bernardo Silva was less pleased than his manager about the visitors’ display.
The Portuguese midfielder claimed that the squad were "not happy" and insisted that they needed to "do better" to remedy their torrid run of results.
"With Man City, it's always two points lost," Silva told BBC Sport. "One point is better than zero but we're not happy at the moment.
"When I finish a game and I get a point I'm not happy. It's not the way we built this team, it's not our standard.
"We know our situation with injuries. Coming to Crystal Palace is never easy but we have to do better.
"We know how tough it is to come here when we have all our squad and we're in top form. We have to do better. We have to react better to the second balls. We have to give them less opportunities on set-pieces."
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Guardiola addresses concerns about De Bruyne future, says Belgium’s legacy at City is ‘eternal’
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And asked about City’s chances of challenging for the league title, Silva believed that injured players regaining their fitness could offer them a route back to the top of the table.
Silva said: "We're in December. We'd like to be in a different position. If we recover our players quickly, we can always do it. But right now our concern is a different one. If we're fourth or fifth we have to look at winning the next game.
"The last month and a half have not been good enough."
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