City manager Pep Guardiola admitted his side were second best against United but did feel Dalot should have seen red. He told Sky Sports: “He should be sent off, it’s a red card since the game. But it will be poor as a manager, I’ve never been that, if you analyse that, to win or lose a game. I said to Michael and all the players right now here, they deserve that change. It’s a red card – definitely. But that will not make us grow up. The new players knew exactly what they had to do, but it’s what it is. I could say that [the red would have changed the game] and blame. We will not grow up, we will not move forward. But what happened is not a surprise at all for me, but it’s not happened in the past.
“When I arrived here, one action, it happened with these referees in Chelsea, in Man City, Chelsea-Gundogan with [N’Golo Kante]. So now I start to realise, it’s not about that. Because with that, we grow up, always talking. We have to look at ourselves, honestly. So, what happened in the situation? We should differently, maybe, but who knows. There are a lot of teams that win with ten against 11, and I get the feeling with the game that we played, maybe we’ll have no win. If the players have excuses for that reason, we’ll be in trouble in the future. We have to look at ourselves, and today it’s simple.”