Pep Guardiola can’t resist a dig at West Ham United despite high praise from the Spaniard as Manchester City crash out of the Carabao Cup.
West Ham fans are in dreamland right now.
David Moyes’s side are fourth in the Premier League and flying up at the top of their Europa League group with a perfect three wins from three so far – meaning they are just one victory from winning the group and making the last 16.
Now after seeing off Premier League champions Man City on penalties, West Ham have reached the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup too.
Moyes made eight changes to his West Ham side and played much of the match without a recognised striker in front of a sell out 60,000 crowd at the London Stadium.
Guardiola named a very strong starting line-up with only goalkeeper Ederson and his two first choice centre-backs rested over the 90 minutes.
West Ham made it four wins in 10 days, though, as they fired home a perfect five penalties to beat Man City 5-3 on spot kicks amid jubilant scenes.
It ended Man City’s remarkable chokehold on the competition which has seen them win it the last four years in a row.
As a result West Ham became the first side to beat Man City in the league cup since October 2016!
Despite West Ham’s second string holding their own against his expensively assembled superstars, though, Guardiola couldn’t resist a sly dig at West Ham.
The former Barcelona boss did praise the Hammers and the ‘fantastic’ job being done by Moyes in east London.
But he suggested the Hammers parked the bus, the second rival manager to do so in as many games after similar sour grape comments from Nuno Espirito Santo following the win over Spurs at the weekend.
Pep Guardiola can’t resist West Ham dig despite high praise as Man City crash out
“An incredible run has finished (but) we finished in a good way,” Guardiola said (ManCity.com).
“We played in a really good way, creating chances against a team who defended deep.
“On penalties they were better. Congratulations to West Ham. Next year we will be back.”
Man City’s official website also described going to penalties as a ‘lottery’.
We’re sure a different spin would have been put on the penalties had City won the shootout.
What did Guardiola – and Nuno before him – expect us to do? Allow them to attack us at will and potentially rack up a cricket score?
It is nonsensical to claim all we did was defend deep.
At the end of the day we defended resiliently and doggedly but we certainly did not park the bus.
And West Ham arguably had as many clear cut chances as City too.
Tomas Soucek and Andriy Yarmolenko missing three golden opportunities between them while Arthur Masuaku forced some smart saves and Manuel Lanzini was denied what looked like being a wonder strike by a block from Oleksandr Zinchenko.
In fairness to Guardiola he did go on to praise West Ham and the remarkable job Moyes is doing. It was tainted by his ‘defensive’ comments, though.
“One of the toughest games we played at home when one side was better than us last season was West Ham,” Guardiola said (ManCity.com).
“They’re doing well in the Premier League and the Europa League and now they are in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup.
“(They are a) fantastic team, (and have a) fantastic manager. We knew it. We did our game. I didn’t see the stats, but I thought we did a good game.
“Sometimes it happens. Next season we will be back.”
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