- Pep Guardiola lamented his side’s lack of intensity in the defeat at Bournemouth
- Andoni Iraola’s team achieved their first-ever victory over the champions on Saturday
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Pep Guardiola blamed a lack of ‘intensity’ on his injury-hit side after Manchester City surrendered their place at the top of the Premier League following a shock 2-1 defeat at Bournemouth.
Goals from Antoine Semenyo and Evanilson, before a late reply from Josko Gvardiol, set up City’s first top-flight defeat since December 6 and their second straight defeat in all competitions after Wednesday’s Carabao Cup exit to Tottenham.
After watching the 32-match unbeaten run vanish, allowing Liverpool to go top with their 2-1 win over Brighton, Guardiola admitted his tired players ‘couldn’t cope’ with Bournemouth’s attack.
He said: ‘We couldn’t handle the intensity. All those situations with the long balls, we couldn’t win.
“In the game they were higher than us for many reasons. We have players with rhythm and the other players lack rhythm because we couldn’t train due to injuries. But we knew it.’
Pep Guardiola insisted his injury-hit Manchester City side could not cope with Bournemouth’s intensity
Goals from Evanilson and Antoine Semenyo secured the Cherries’ first-ever win over City
The result also marked the end of the club’s 32-match unbeaten run in the Premier League
He added: “It is what it is (with the injuries). We have few players with a lot of minutes and many players without minutes. The balance is a bit awkward. We played well against Spurs, but today we couldn’t handle their intensity and that’s why we lost the game.”
Guardiola has been forced to take on Kyle Walker after just six minutes of training in the past three weeks due to the injury crisis. Nathan Aké and Manuel Akanji were also forced into the line-up despite pre-match doubts about their fitness.
With the Champions League match against Ruben Amorim’s Sporting on Tuesday, Guardiola revealed that Ruben Dias will not be fit for the trip to Portugal and John Stones, who missed the defeat at Bournemouth, is also doubtful with a foot problem.
By winning, Bournemouth ended a run of fourteen consecutive league defeats against City, which amounted to a surprising total of 45-7.
Andoni Iraola said: ‘I think it is very difficult to beat City. In any case, you should enjoy it today.
‘Tomorrow we will think about Brentford. But apart from the result, I am very proud of the achievement. I think it’s even harder to beat them, and rightly so.
Guardiola also revealed that Ruben Dias will not be fit for their match against Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday
‘Even though we suffered until the end because they put pressure on us in the last minutes. We had to feel the pressure and at the end it was tight. You don’t enjoy that at all. There was so much pressure.
‘I am very satisfied. One thing is to beat City, but another thing is to play better. We played without fear, tried to press when we could and defend when we had to.”