A thousand times more praise. Guardiola spoke about his assessment of Manchester City's game

Manchester City's head coach, Pep Guardiola, delivered a less than comforting review of his team's midweek performance against RB Leipzig, despite the Cityzens rallying back after conceding two goals. Since then, he has defended his comments, explaining that the praise he gives his players far exceeds any level of criticism he could express towards his team over his seven-year tenure at Manchester.

According to reports from Goal, Guardiola remained steadfast, insisting that he wasn't overly critical. He stated:

"If you knew how many nice words I said about them, publicly and privately, during my time here. It's a thousand times more than criticism.

I'm honest, and I felt it, so I expressed it in that way. Perhaps because we won, if we had lost, I might not have said that. We won, and people took it, and I expressed my feelings at that moment. I said it because I felt that situation."

It's no secret that expectations surrounding Guardiola are exceedingly high. Nevertheless, these standards have played a crucial role in his teams becoming some of the best in history under his guidance. He acknowledges that Manchester City, pursuing a fourth consecutive Premier League title, cannot afford too many mistakes in the battle against Arsenal and Liverpool for the championship. Guardiola will face Ange Postecoglou's highly praised team for the first time today, a team that demonstrated incredible results at the start of the season, securing the top spot in the English league.