Guardiola reveals why Manchester City can not repeat friendly win over Chelsea in Premier League

Following Manchester City's 4-2 victory over Chelsea at Ohio Stadium, Cityzens head coach Pep Guardiola expressed confidence that the Blues would never make the type of mistakes they made in the match under normal circumstances, particularly at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea's loss to Manchester City saw all three of Erling Haaland’s goals result from the Blues losing possession while attempting to play out from the back.

Similar errors were observed in their friendlies against Wrexham and Celtic, but Guardiola was quick to defend his former assistant, Enzo Maresca, attributing these mistakes to the subpar pitch conditions in the United States.

Speaking after the game. Guardiola said, “I want to say something. It’s happened due to the pitch conditions. In normal conditions, that would not happen. At Stamford Bridge, that would not happen. That’s for sure.”

“It will be more difficult for us to get a result at Stamford Bridge. Always it is difficult there.”

Despite beating his Italian counterpart, Guardiola expressed his support for Chelsea’s Enzo Maresca, saying. “I saw what Enzo wants to do and I like it. I don’t make a compliment because he's my friend and helped me for the year of the treble. But I saw today many things that I know he is going to do.”

“He did it at Leicester magnificently and he will do it here with an unbelievable squad. It will be a good season for him. If you expect after two weeks, not training properly, that they are going to win the Champions League? No. I’m a big fan of him and I know he'll do well.”

Guardiola will get his chance to test his theory about Stamford Bridge soon enough as Chelsea are set to host the reigning Premier League champions Manchester City in the opening game of their 2024/25 campaign on the 18th of August.