Manchester City's comeback win at Huddersfield Town meant more to Pep Guardiola than their demolitions

Pep Guardiola said that he took more satisfaction from Manchester City scraping past Huddersfield Town 2-1 than he has done from any of their thumping wins of the last few months.

City have put seven goals past Stoke City, six past Watford, and five past Liverpool and Crystal Palace, but Guardiola said that this victory, coming from Raheem Sterling’s late winner, meant more to him than any one-side demolition. That is exactly what he told his City players – who themselves have felt they needed a narrow win to sharpen them up – immediately after the game.

“More [satisfaction] than winning 4-0,” Guardiola smiled afterwards. “The same words I said in the locker room after the game. We need to win these kind of games in this way. Maybe that will convince us more that we are able to do that. And that is so important, because when you win sometimes, people are happy, very nice words. But that is not reality in the high level of sport. You have to suffer. You have to live that, and in that last period last month, we did not feel that. And that is why it’s so important. To live that situation and be able win the game.”

There has been a view at City this season, from Guardiola and the players, that their wins were too easy and that they needed narrower wins and harder games to keep the players on their toes. Like the 2-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk or the 1-0 win over Chelsea in late September. But today Huddersfield Town gave City their hardest game of the season and Guardiola was relieved and delighted by the challenge they were set, and that they passed. “We spoke at half time about how we needed this kind of situation to happen,” Guardiola said. “We have to live that situation, as if the last month did not happen. You have to live it, to be in trouble. The last seven to 10 games of the season, to win the Premier League, you have to live this kind of games.”

City’s approach in these difficult circumstances meant a lot to Guardiola. “When I spoke many times, are we going to finish unbeaten, it’s impossible,” he said. “Because every three days a game, you play a lot of games like this, it’s impossible not to lose a game. But to fight to avoid that, mentally, and in the way we want to play, is fantastic. We played a real Premier League game today, the winter has come, always it is tough, but we did it. We can continue our streak.”

Guardiola hailed the improvement of Raheem Sterling afterwards, following the England forward’s 12th goal of the season. “He has made a big [jump],” Guardiola said. “He is winning games, now he’s a winning player. Before, ok, he would make good actions, but now he is able to win games. We are in November, he has already broken his goal-scoring record, so that is top. But not just in terms of goals, and how he is now strong, keeping the ball, before he would lose a lot of balls, now he is keeping the situation much much better.”