Guardiola: Manchester City almost perfect at Burnley

Pep Guardiola hailed a near-perfect performance from Manchester City, despite being held 1-1 by Burnley at Turf Moor.

The Premier League leaders dominated for much of Saturday’s contest and led through Danilo’s rocket, but Raheem Sterling missed a pair of presentable chances before Johann Gudmundsson popped up with a late equaliser.

City had 20 shots to Burnley’s eight, although the Clarets hit the woodwork through Aaron Lennon before their equaliser.

It was just the fourth time that City had not won a Premier League game this season, but Guardiola was still enthused with his side’s display.

“We played so good,” Guardiola told Sky Sports.

“We missed the last moment to try to score the second one and after, of course playing in the Premier League, especially away in the last 10 minutes with 1-0, anything can happen.

#PEP: We played good. Maybe people don’t realise, but the way we played was outstanding. It was almost perfect the way we played today in the build-ups, the defending long balls and second balls, the courage to play. But we missed the chances to score more goals.

— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 3, 2018

“But we played, in general, an outstanding performance. I’m so happy for the performance.

“We played good. I think to come here and play the way we played, maybe you don’t realise, but the way we played was almost perfect.

“The way we played today, in the build-up, the patience, defending the long balls, second balls, just… we just missed chances to score more goals.”

Sterling’s second miss was a baffling scuff from barely a yard, but Guardiola would not criticise the England international.

“It’s football, this can happen. Next game he’s going to score.”