Pep Guardiola was overcome with a sense of relief rather than joy, as Manchester City halted their struggle against Leicester City with a 2-0 win.
Savinho opened the scoring in the first half before netting Arling Haaland’s 74th-minute header as City secured a much-needed win at the King Power Stadium.
Sunday’s victory marked just the second victory in City’s last 10 Premier League outings, arresting a dreadful run of form that has already undermined the four-straight champions’ title defence.
The City manager was relieved to get over the line after his side’s first win in four league games on December 4, beating Nottingham Forest.
“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 reach the milestone while in charge of a club since David Moyes did it with Everton in 2013.
“It’s not an ideal performance but it’s almost impossible at the moment.
“It’s important to win here, we’ve always fought. We don’t have enough energy to sustain our game for 90 minutes but hopefully this result, in the new year, will help us bounce back from bad results and our players will come back.
“It’s not enjoyable, it’s just relief now. This is the real word to express the feeling that we all have.
“It feels like we’ve done incredible things for years and now we’re not winning games. It’s just a fact of relief, but we have to improve.”
We have… pic.twitter.com/EqI08O5qKX
— Manchester City (@mancity) December 29, 2024
Leicester had their chances against a nervous City defense with Jamie Vardy cutting out their best chance.
In fact, City finished with 1.4 expected goals, slightly higher than Leicester’s 1.3.
City’s next game is against Salford City in the FA Cup against West Ham.
