Pep Guardiola’s (left) Manchester City beat Watford 2-1 (Nick Potts/PA)
Pep Guardiola’s (left) Manchester Metropolis beat Watford 2-1 (Nick Potts/PA)

Pep Guardiola hopes Manchester Metropolis’s nerve-jangling victory in opposition to Watford will function a wake-up name to his gamers.

Metropolis prolonged their lead on the summit of the Premier League with a 2-1 victory at Vicarage Street on Tuesday evening, however they have been made to combat for the three factors after Abdoulaye Doucoure pulled one again for Watford within the closing phases.

The champions had been in full management of the fixture, however spurned a lot of possibilities to place the victory past doubt after Leroy Sane and Riyad Mahrez scored both facet of half-time.

“We spoke within the locker room and now we have to be taught from what occurred within the final 20 to 25 minutes,” mentioned Guardiola.

“That’s the lesson. You possibly can always remember to play, till the final second when the referee decides to go dwelling.

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“It’s a regular course of to win one thing after which to enhance, and to enhance, it’s a must to reside this type of scenario.

“As we speak we suffered, however we are going to discuss, we are going to practice and we are going to visualise that if we let the opponents play for 5, 10, 15 minutes, everyone may cause us issues and beat us.”

Guardiola made six modifications to the Metropolis facet that beat Bournemouth on Saturday, with Raheem Sterling dropping to the bench.

However even with out their high scorer, the table-toppers created a number of possibilities within the opening interval, solely to search out Ben Foster in impressed positive kind.

Sane lastly broke the impasse 5 minutes earlier than half-time with Mahrez side-footing dwelling shortly after the interval.

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Captain Vincent Kompany was withdrawn with cramp within the ultimate minutes earlier than Doucoure bundled the ball over the road to make sure a nervy finish for Guardiola’s workforce.

Metropolis nonetheless, held on to maneuver 5 factors away from Liverpool, who face Burnley on Wednesday.

Their victory was performed out in opposition to the backdrop of off-the-pitch allegations that they’ve flouted Monetary Truthful Play guidelines, however Guardiola insisted on Tuesday evening he’ll welcome any investigation.

“I belief in my membership and my organisation and if one thing is fallacious, they’ll inform us,” he added.

Watford in the meantime, have now misplaced 4 of their final 5 matches, however boss Javi Gracia was happy with his facet’s efficiency.

“Metropolis dominated the sport and created a number of possibilities, however within the final minutes we had some possibilities and I’m very happy with the trouble of my gamers,” he mentioned.

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“I do know it is extremely tough to compete in opposition to this workforce. They discover the area, they’re actually harmful and when you lose one second of focus, you already know what is going to occur.

“We didn’t do sufficient to get an excellent outcome, however it’s good for us as a result of we confirmed the spirit till the top and the supporters will probably be happy with our gamers.”

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