Guardiola Praises Palace After City Draw, Jesus Out For Two Months

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has applauded Crystal Palace for their impressive performance against his team in Sunday’s English Premier League clash at Selhurst Park.

The Eagles denied Guardiola’s side a chance of equaling a 19-game winning streak record held by Bayern Munich by forcing the league leaders to a goalless draw in the final league game in 2017 but Manchester City still remain 14 points clear at the top of the EPL.

“Yes you have to give Palace credit. They are a good team,” Guardiola told BT Sport.

“Big credit to Crystal Palace. The first half we have action, they have action. In the second half it was much better. It was a deserved point for both teams and now we focus on the next one. I said many times it will be a long road, anything can happen in football. Of course we never give up and Crystal Palace fought hard but in the last period it was tough and we played well. We spoke many times about how they would play.

“We had problems in the game, but the second half was much better. At the end, keeper Ederson helped us to keep one point. Maybe it was a penalty, the referee made that decision so that’s okay. On Tuesday, we have another game so the good moments you have to react with the best way to do it.”

Guardiola also played down the argument of Kevin De Bruyne and Leroy Sane during the encounter. The Belgian star was livid with the German winger who failed to follow a pass played to him during the first half.

“Football is emotional and sometimes you have arguments and be together to have the best solution.”

On the injury to Gabriel Jesus, Guardiola revealed the Brazilian will be out for up to two months.

“He’s injured in the terms hopefully it will only be one or two months. Then Kevin we were lucky, well not lucky. I don’t know what happen with him in that last action. I am talking about the game we have to sit down and see what happened with Gabriel and Kevin and we will see.”

He also pleaded with the English Premier League referees to protect players after he watched in agony two of his influential players go off injured due to reckless challenges from Crystal Palace players.

“Please, referees, they have to protect players. We were lucky against Tottenham and against Newcastle. Today we were not lucky.

“Referees have to protect. We know how strong physically it is England but teams miss big players, not just Manchester City. The replay speaks for itself. We have to protect players.”