Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola described his team’s 4-1 victory over West Ham on Saturday as a “release” but admitted the defending Premier League champions are yet to rediscover their full form.
BusinessDay reports that Manchester City entered the match having won just once in 13 games before last weekend’s 2-0 triumph over Leicester, which effectively ended their hopes of a fifth consecutive league title.
Against West Ham, Vladimir Coufal’s own goal opened the scoring, followed by two strikes from Erling Haaland and a late effort from Phil Foden. Niclas Füllkrug’s consolation for the visitors did little to dampen the home side’s much-needed emphatic victory.
Despite the win, Guardiola tempered expectations, saying, “No. I’m happier to win, but we are still not like we were for different reasons. The result will help. We struggle, but it is a release. We were lucky with the first goal—they were better in the opening minutes and could have gone 0-1 or 0-2. The second goal helped us, it was an incredible goal, but we are still not like we were.”
