PEP GUARDIOLA SAYS his Manchester City side beat West Ham to remain one point behind leaders Liverpool, though he expects both title-chasing sides to drop points during the run-in.
Sergio Aguero’s 59th-minute penalty at the Etihad Stadium earned City their fourth successive top-flight win on a night when Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool thrashed Watford 5-0 to stay at the summit.
City have now won eight of their previous nine Premier League games – only dropping points once in a loss to Newcastle United last month.
And while Liverpool sent an emphatic message by returning to winning ways in style, Guardiola insists both clubs will slip up across the final 10 games of the campaign.
“We knew it – Liverpool is a top side, we know that,” City manager Guardiola told a news conference.
“Now we have a gap with the first two with the third, we’re eight points [ahead of Tottenham], nine points for the leader.
“We knew it, 10 games… many things are going to happen.
“I think we are going to drop points, I think Liverpool are going to drop points. We’re going to see until the end.
“It’s important now to refresh, good recovery and prepare the game against Bournemouth.”
City can go back top of the table at the weekend as they face Bournemouth the day before Liverpool meet Everton in the Merseyside derby.
Guardiola’s quadruple-seeking side then meet Watford the following week, with the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against Schalke and the FA Cup quarter-final at Swansea then on the schedule prior to the international break.
“Hopefully we can make a good performance against Bournemouth and after we have one week to prepare [for Watford], the last game in the Premier League before 21 days without Premier League again and focus on Schalke and Swansea,” Guardiola added.
“That’s why it’s a real final for us against Bournemouth.”
Not deliberate. So the money was just resting in the player’s accounts before being moved on.
@Keelan O’neill: right there Ted. Down with this sort of thing!
@Hirrison Mirk: even a Dyson isn’t going to vacuum up all the dirt on this one…
Nobody who wears tinted glasses is trustworthy
@Ave it: What about Ray Charles?
@Hirrison Mirk: Stevie Wonder maybe but Ray Charles?! Have you not seen the movie???
@Graham Ross: good point well made, at least his motivation was always obvious.
The way people are going on about it you’d swear they were systematic drug cheats like the Russians, all they did was under handed pay their players off the official books which is against the rules of the league, every club in Ireland pays a few players under handed against the rules of the All Ireland League, should they all be kicked out vilified?
@Wheresmyjumper: ballina got deducted points because they got caught
@Wheresmyjumper: Don’t be bringing the GAA into this
@s mc: Shannon were fined as well, my point is that people who just don’t like Saracens and are using this as stick to beat them with. At least it was excellent players who have a short career getting paid and that’s not a bad thing. It was rules not laws that were broken
@Wheresmyjumper: Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs might have a different view as to whether laws were broken. The Glasgow Rangers case springs to mind.
@David Egan: i’m sure they’ll claim back the money so, as far as i know the HMRC are not involved
@Wheresmyjumper: if what you say is true, why would Sarries choose relegation over handing over their books!?
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: no business in the world wants a revenue audit, they did their sums ans found this way was cheaper, other staff paid under the counter might also have got in trouble, I just don’t see this as much of a big deal
@Wheresmyjumper: what about the excellent players at other clubs being run correctly that have had medals taken off them and defining moments that they worked all their life for? Or the fans who spend thousands to follow them over the country being cheated? The correct action was taken to relegate them, and now further action should be taken by stripping them of their titles that they won through cheating. Its a disgrace if they dont check the accounts from every year and how that was an option for Saracens is baffling.
@Darren World: i just think anyone involved with any club in Ireland knows this is going on so we can’t afford to pontificate from our ivory towers
@Wheresmyjumper: you are compairing it with an amateur league, completley different.
@Darren World: how so? Isn’t cheating the same regardless? Aren’t excellent amateur players being denied trophies and medals and dozens, potentially hundreds of club members and fans being denied seeing their club win a trophy? Or do they not count because they are not Saracens? Remember professional rugby came about because the cheating became unhideable.
@Wheresmyjumper: I dunno, let me see, knocked Munster out of two champions cup semi finals in 4 years. A competition where their seeding is based on cheating. Have a stronger playing panel also because of it. Before it was the champions cup it was know as the Heineken cup and Wray was at the forefront of having that changed to favour the english teams. Systematic financial doping…..nothing less
@Wheresmyjumper: that maybe so – in doing so, you run the risks (when sport is a business, they are business risks). They got caught and the agreed and defined punishment was applied.
@Darren World: because you are in a league where it is not a level playing field. The AIL allow universities to offer players scholarships and can pay their college fee’s. Thats why its not strictly policed in the league. How can ya pull up a club for paying match fee’s in a system where players in that league are allowed get 3k college fees covered?
We did not deliberately draw up all those non standard contracts like buying a % of a players image rights for an elevated non arms length valuation….sure it was all an accident really
It would have got interesting if there was also a salary cap in the Championship (which there probably ought to be actually).
In being relegated to the Championship, where there is no salary cap, Saracens can keep all of their players! Now if you were to be cynical ….. Suppose they all stay and were to get say a 50% advance on their salary for 2021/2022 paid as a ‘bonus’ for winning promotion to the premiership in the 2020/2021 season!!!!!
He looks a bit like father Romeo Sensini in that picture !
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