Pep Guardiola gives surprising reaction to Manchester City failure vs Everton
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Pep Guardiola praised a "really good" Manchester City performance despite the struggling champions failing to convert their chances in a disappointing draw against Everton when the head coach was visibly furious on the touchline at several points. Bernardo Silva had put City in front, via a big Jarrad Branthwaite deflection, before Iliman Ndiaye levelled for Sean Dyche's visitors. But Erling Haaland had a second-half penalty saved by Jordan Pickford to extend City's horrible run of results. The draw moved City up a place to sixth before the 3pm kick-offs, ahead of Aston Villa on goal difference. But they have now won just one of their past 13 games in all competitions.
And Guardiola said: "We played really good but we are in the period right now that is what happens, we create, we concede the first time [an Everton shot] arrives. But yeah, we keep going. "The performance against that team was really good offensively and defensively. We shot a lot inside the 18 yard box but unfortunately couldn't get the result we wanted.".
City travel to relegation candidates Leicester on Sunday and Guardiola, who has a host of players out injured, added: "Now is time to recover and go there with the best mentality as possible. That is what we have to do.". City defender Manuel Akanji, who made an important late block from Jack Harrison, felt they deserved to win the game but said there were positives to take despite some poor finishing being costly.
Asked if a draw was the right result, Akanji said: "I don't think so, no. We did more for the game, we created lots of chances but unfortunately we could only score one goal and we conceded one from basically nothing. This was a game we were able to go score three or four but they didn't want to go in.
