{"id":303909,"date":"2026-02-22T05:01:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T05:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/303909\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T05:01:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T05:01:18","slug":"man-city-2-1-newcastle-pep-guardiola-makes-honest-title-admission-after-win-over-magpies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/303909\/","title":{"rendered":"Man City 2-1 Newcastle: Pep Guardiola makes honest title admission after win over Magpies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester City<\/a> manager Pep Guardiola<\/a> has warned that many of his current players have never been involved in the Premier League title run-in.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard’s remarks came after the Cityzens defeated Newcastle United<\/a> 2-1<\/a> on Saturday to reduce the lead at the top of the Premier League table<\/a> to two points, capitalising on Arsenal’s 2-2 draw<\/a> with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

A Nico O’Reiley brace either side of Lewis Hall equalising for the Magpies extended City’s unbeaten run over the Toon Army in home top-flight meetings to 22, the Manchester club’s 16th victory during that run.<\/p>\n

Fresh off their 17th overall victory of the ongoing Premier League season, Guardiola noted the inexperience of his current crop of players.<\/p>\n

Guardiola points to lack of experience in title-chasing squad
\n<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Imago \/ Pro Sports Images<\/p>\n

Speaking to TNT Sports via Mirror Football<\/a>, Guardiola believes that a significant portion of his current squad lacks the necessary experience of a high-pressure run-in, suggesting that approximately 70% of his players have never found themselves in a title-winning situation before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Massive [win]. Newcastle is an incredible team. Awesome team,” said the City manager. “Physicality and the speed they have up front. Really tough but the team was unbelievable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSeventy per cent of the players never played in that situation and I don’t play. We have to live it. They know – we know – that until the end of the season every game will be like this.”<\/p>\n

Guardiola then praised the home support as the club prepare for their final five home fixtures of the season against Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, Arsenal, Brentford and Aston Villa.<\/p>\n

“Today we had the best crowd of the year,” noted the City boss. “It was unbelievable our people. I am really proud to be manager of these incredible fans. Now it is rest for three days and prepare for Leeds.”<\/p>\n

O’Reilly’s goals on Saturday took the versatile midfielder’s \u2014 capable of playing at left-back \u2014 league tally to four, making him City’s fifth highest scorer behind Erling Haaland (22), Antoine Semenyo (13), Phil Foden (seven) and Tijjani Reijnders (five).\u00a0<\/p>\n

PL title race: O’Reilly reflects on City\u2019s victory
\n<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Iconsport \/ PA Images \/ Icon Sport<\/p>\n

The academy graduate described the victory as a “dream” as he looks to win his first Premier League title with the club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s a dream of mine to win something like this,” the 20-year-old told TNT Sports. “There’s still a lot of games to go. We need to take each game as it comes. I’m enjoying every moment and taking it all in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Definitely [City can win the title]. We always believe we can win games. We had a week break, so we were able to prepare for this game very well. We just need to keep going.” \u00a0<\/p>\n

O’Reilly’s emergence has been a highlight of a season where City have had to adapt to several high-profile injuries and tactical shifts in the midfield.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has warned that many of his current players have never been involved in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2175,152960,4118,180,31396,85,46,16663,6661,2619,49585,2224,105,152962,152961,1505],"class_list":{"0":"post-303909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-epl","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-golf","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-olympics","17":"tag-premier-league","18":"tag-rugby","19":"tag-sport","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-sports-mole","22":"tag-teams","23":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}