Pep Guardiola hailed Manchester City’s 2-1 win at Huddersfield Town as one of their more satisfying results this season after watching his team fight back from going a goal behind against a side who have beaten Manchester United.
Raheem Sterling’s late winner means City have become the first team in 25 years of the Premier League to accumulate 37 points from their opening 13 games. It was the first time since April 1995 that City had won a top-division fixture after being behind at half-time and it leaves Guardiola’s team eight points clear at the top of the table, with that position further enhanced by a considerably superior goal difference.
“We spoke about needing this kind of situation to happen,” Guardiola said. “We have to be in trouble because when you are 1-0 down you have to know how to live with that situation. To win the Premier League, you have to live through these kind of games. It’s a big positive because we showed a lot of focus. That is why I am so happy. It was a real Premier League game – we played against a tough team and winter has come, but we did it and now we can continue.”
Huddersfield had taken the lead through Nicolás Otamendi’s own-goal but City’s fightback began with a penalty from Sergio Agüero early in the second period and the away side’s pressure paid off with a lucky ricochet off Sterling’s knee in the 84th minute.
“It definitely gives me more satisfaction,” Guardiola said of the team’s second-half recovery. “We need to win games in that way. It is so important that you have to suffer and still be able to win the game. We made an outstanding performance in that sense.”
Sterling has now scored 12 times this season, the best figures of his career with six months of the campaign still to go, and Guardiola praised the contribution of the England international.
“He is young and he can still improve, but now he is a winning player, he is winning games. Before, he made good actions but now he wins games. We are in November and already he has made a record for himself. I am impressed, but still he is 22 years old. He can still improve. He can learn and we will be there to help him.”
Rajiv van La Parra, the Huddersfield winger, was sent off after the final whistle for pushing Leroy Sané in the face but their manager, David Wagner, said he agreed with the penalty decision and would watch the video of the red-card incident. “I saw everything I wanted to see from my team, apart from the loss,” he said.