Guardiola´s relief overrides joy as Man City down Leicester

Pep Guardiola was overwhelmed with a sense of relief, rather than joy, as Manchester City halted their struggles with a 2-0 win over Leicester City.

Savinho opened the scoring in the first half before teeing up Erling Haaland’s 74th-minute header as City clinched a much-needed win at the King Power Stadium.

Sunday’s triumph marked just a second victory in City’s last 10 Premier League outings, arresting a woeful run of form that has already curtailed the four-in-a-row champions’ title defence.

The City manager was just relieved to get over the line after his side’s first win in four league games since beating Nottingham Forest on December 4.

“I would say we needed it, all of us,” said Guardiola, who celebrated his 500th game in charge of City in all competitions. He is the first Premier League manager to hit that milestone while in charge at one club since David Moyes did so with Everton in 2013.

“It’s not the ideal performance but in these moments it’s almost impossible.

“It’s important to win here, always we struggled. We don’t have enough energy to sustain our game for 90 minutes but hopefully this result, in the new year, will help us to bounce back from the bad results and our players will come back.

“It’s not enjoyable, it’s just relief right now. That is the real word to express the feeling that we have in all of us.

“It looks like we have done incredible things for many years, and now we were not able to win games. It’s just a fact of relief, but we have to improve.”

We’ve got… pic.twitter.com/EqI08O5qKX

— Manchester City (@ManCity) December 29, 2024

Leicester had their chances against a nervy City defence, with Jamie Vardy slicing over from their best opportunity.

Indeed, City finished with 1.4 expected goals, only slightly higher than Leicester’s 1.3.

Next up for City is a home game against West Ham, before they take on Salford City in the FA Cup.