After Pep Guardiola’s latest mea culpa – “I blame me, not the players,” he said on Friday – Manchester City returned a heady second consecutive win for the first time since late October, and a third successive outing without defeat.
Under the manager’s own logic he takes credit for a victory decorated by a scintillating Savinho performance, featuring two assists and the forcing of Vladimir Coufal’s own goal, and crowned by Erling Haaland’s second. The Brazilian received the ball in midfield and fed the Norwegian, whose slaloming run was as elegant as the chip over an onrushing Alphonse Areola.
