He’s sure to say it’s ‘so, so early” but Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City players defied that hesitance with an opportunity-seizing 3-0 win over Sunderland at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
Second-place City are now two points back of Arsenal in early December and have a workable run of Festive Fixtures ahead — as do Arsenal.
MORE — Recap, video highlights | Cherki’s incredible rabona assist
Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, and Phil Foden scored while Rayan Cherki amazed with some ball wizardry including a rabona assist on Foden’s marker.
Guardiola said the play was fantastic but when pressed further he took the question in a different direction, nothing that Lionel Messi doesn’t usually go for the audacious play.
Guardiola also played down City’s table standing and spoke performance, and he loved the latter on Saturday.
Make no mistake, Guardiola wasn’t hating on the play. He just says when you try the audacious, it better come off.
And he loves Cherki.
Pep Guardiola on @rayan_cherki: "An exceptional player. He's so young, has HUGE personality - he proved it against Fulham in the toughest moment, 5-4 coming on, and every time he had the ball he gave extra passes and continuity. He's not scared, has self-confidence, and in the…
— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) December 6, 2025
City have a huge Champions League trip to old nemesis (for Guardiola, a very old nemesis) Real Madrid at midwweek and they look good heading into that tie.
Pep Guardiola reacts to win over Sunderland as Man City within 2 points of Arsenal
What pleased you most about the performance? “Everything, one of the best performances of the season against a team that’s done so much so far with top six. The way you play, the way you perform is what tells you what’s going to happen in the future,”
“We didn’t concede much, one action from Ruben who lost the ball but the rest, a team that creates a lot, and we created three chances.”
Has Rayan Cherki pulled off a rabona cross in training? “No. That was the first time. Rayan has a special, unique quality. Sometimes you love him, sometimes you hate him but he’s special — a composer mentality. He has something that just mom and dad gave to him.”
Do you give players the freedom to things like that? “I want him to make a good cross,” Guardiola said when asked if risky flair plays upset him. “If he doesn’t make a good cross, I don’t like it. He did it and it’s fine. I never saw Messi doing these kind of things. Messi’s the best player to play the game. The biggest quality of Messi is the simplicity of Messi, the simple things he does perfectly. The biggest players like Rayan have to learn this. But he’s so young.”
Two points back of Arsenal. How do you feel? “Many things are going to happen. What keeps you in perspective is the way you play, not whether you are 2 points behind or three or four or five. Of course it’s better than be two than nine. But it’s the way you perform because the players aren’t stupid. It’s the way you play and the consistency, to be strong in many departments. In the last eight, nine, 10 games — not all of them — but we’ve been really, really good.”
