Man City boss Guardiola sends warning to Premier League rivals: Our best is yet to come

Posted Monday, September 26, 2016 by Express.co.uk

Man City boss Guardiola sends warning to Premier League rivals: Our best is yet to come
Pep Guardiola is only the second manager to win his first six Premier League games

PEP GUARDIOLA sent out an ominous warning to Manchester City's title rivals by insisting his side are nowhere near hitting their peak.

City made it 10 wins from 10 under the Catalan thanks to this win and they already hold a four-point lead over nearest challengers Tottenham.

It has made a mockery of the naysayers who predicted Guardiola would struggle to adapt his philosophy to the rigorous demands of the English top-flight.

City have already racked up 18 goals, conceding just five despite the continuing injury problems faced by Vincent Kompany.

But Guardiola has told the likes of Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte, Mauricio Pochettino and Arsene Wenger his team are still a work in progress.

"We are far away from where we want to be," said the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss.

"If we were close then I could just go back home. We are here to get better. You always have to keep going. It never ends in football. You can always improve – individual performances, collective performances.

"You can always create different things and that's why the game is nice.

"Every game is different, every game is complicated and it is something I and the players are working to understand as quickly as possible. I'm really happy with the players. They work a lot. They know all the staff are working 24 hours for them. It's getting better."

Words that were underlined by Swansea's Leon Britton who believes City are the Premier League's new pass masters after their 100 per cent start to the season.

The Swansea midfielder has been at the heart of the Welsh club's passing philosophy for over a decade and has nothing but admiration for what the former Barcelona boss has achieved with his new charges.

The home side proved stern opponents but were undone by a Sergio Aguero brace and a lovely Raheem Sterling strike as City made it a perfect 10 under their new manager.

It means Guardiola is only the second manager to win his first six Premier League games, Carlo Ancelotti was the first to achieve that feat as he led Chelsea to the title in 2010.

"In terms of passing, I have been playing in the Premier League for five or six seasons now and I don't think I have played against a team that treats the ball as well as they do with their rotation and movement," said Britton.

"Even the keeper is like an extra player. He comes to the edge of the box, drops a shoulder, beats a player and moves it on.

"You think you've got them, you press them right up the pitch and there was one incident in the first half where we chased him down and he clipped the ball over all of us to Kevin De Bruyne on halfway.

"They beat that press and suddenly you are chasing back 50 or 60 yards, that make it very hard to play against them. They are definitely one of the best sides I have faced in the Premier League.

"Their manager, we all know his pedigree, but he has got his ideas across very quickly."

This was no walkover as Swansea showed signs they can turn around their poor recent run under beleaguered manager Francesco Guidolin, but City still found the answers.