When it became clear Bruno Fernandes’ goal was going to stand, Pep Guardiola took a break from berating the fourth official to try and get a message to his players.
In the din, he had to resort to sign language and pointed to his temples with two fingers. Get your minds back on the job, that was the gist. They didn’t and they lost, lost the plot, lost a second goal and lost the game, simple as that.
True, Manchester City were stitched up by a whopping ‘homer’ of a decision but it is also true that they were not fluent enough, not clinical enough, not creative enough, not ruthless enough. They were clearly the more accomplished team but struggled badly to make their superiority count, even though Jack Grealish’s header looked likely to be enough against a Manchester United team that was set up to play purely on the counter-attack.
