Manchester City exceeding even Guardiola´s expectations

Manchester City’s record-breaking first half of the 2017-18 Premier League season has taken even Pep Guardiola by surprise.

City sit atop the league table after 18 matches with an 11-point cushion to fierce rivals Manchester United, the Blues having won 16 games in a row – a Premier League record.

Should they extend that run to 20, City would eclipse Guardiola’s previous best from his time with Bayern Munich.

Despite having had similar success in Germany and with Barcelona in LaLiga, Guardiola is still surprised City have been able to dominate their opponents this season.

However, the coach was keen to dampen talk of City strolling to the title as they head into a busy schedule at the end of 2017.

“No [I did not expect this], I don’t know [what a good points total would have been],” he told a news conference ahead of Saturday’s clash with Bournemouth.

“I’m glad to be where we are. I would have liked to be here at the beginning of the season, but I didn’t expect it. I repeat, this is not normal. This is not a situation I am used to.

An early Christmas present for you…@21LVA is back pic.twitter.com/iy2zEPR58O

— Manchester City (@ManCity) December 22, 2017

“I expect to lose games and drop more points, but I am glad. We are going to fight to continue to be unbeaten. That is going to happen, we will be beaten. But we are going to fight to be unbeaten. 

“There is no doubt about it because of the way we play at Leicester, the way we play against Tottenham and Swansea, the players showed me they are still hungry to win another game. 

“We will drop points and then after that, we will see how we react. 

“There are still a lot of points to win and games to play. Making a lot of plans for the future is a big mistake because I don’t know how many players we will be fit, how many injuries we will have.”