Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola claimed his newly-crowned Premier League champions “drank all the alcohol in Manchester” ahead of a pulsating 1-1 draw at Brighton.
Guardiola was concerned his treble-chasing side may suffer a hangover in Sussex following the jubilation of the weekend’s title celebrations.
But the Spaniard was pleasantly surprised by the performance of his players during a gripping south-coast contest.
“I was a little bit worried about how much we would drop our (level) with what we had done the last four, five, six months,” said Guardiola.
“Forty hours (ago) we drank all the alcohol in Manchester and the way they played was outstanding.
“I enjoyed it a lot, especially being champions.
“You have to come here to win the game, we know it will be tough. They are a fantastic team in all departments, that’s why they are in the Europa League, well deserved.
“And also we showed why we are the best team in England.”
City claimed the first of the three trophies they are chasing by winning the Premier League title over the weekend.
Their sights are now set on adding the FA Cup and Champions League but, before they can switch thoughts fully to their two finals next month, they have to complete the league programme.
The ultimate success of City’s season will now be defined by the FA Cup final, in which they face Manchester United on June 3, and the Champions League final against Inter Milan the following week.
After a strong run throughout the spring – capped by magnificent performances in crunch games against title rivals Arsenal and then Real Madrid in the Champions League – the focus is strong.
Kevin De Bruyne, who like Gundogan is now a five-time Premier League winner, said: “We like to win, and we’re never bored of it. We’ve won a lot in the past but we want to win again and again.
“We keep on working. We enjoy the games against Brighton and Brentford and prepare for United and Inter and hopefully we can do something special.
“Everybody wants it. We know we need to win two games, but they are hard games, and we need to prepare ourselves the best as possible and hopefully we can win them.”
