Pep Guardiola has admitted that he was worried following mistakes in the Manchester City defence during the latter stages of today's game against Leicester City, stating that he "did not know what would have happened" if James Maddison had scored.
The Citizens defeated Leicester 3-1, with goals coming from Erling Haaland and John Stones in the first half able to seal the win for Guardiola's side, though the Spaniard showed signs of worry once Kelechi Iheanacho brought a goal back for the away side.
"The first 55-60 minutes were good but we have to push ourselves and do better, especially after being 3-0 (up). three points are precious to us."
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Erling Haalands' record-breaking season
Haaland's two goals against Leicester means that he has equalled Liverpool's Mohamed Salah's record for most goals scored in a Premier League season, with 32 goals. Additionally, Haaland has also broken the record for most goals in a debut season, beating Kevin Phillips of Sunderland in the 1999/00.
Guardiola discussed Haaland's record breaking debut season in the Premier League, stating "I want him to break all the records possible. That means he scores all the goals and that means he helps us. But I think he wants to win the titles but this is impressive still; you have to play eight or nine more games and he's close to breaking all of them… Coming off at half time, he was excellent as always."
Guardiola made the decision to substitute Haaland at half time, replacing him for Julian Alvarez.
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Second half substitutions
Guardiola took the decision to make all five substitutions in the second half of today's game, with two of those substitutions coming at the half-time break. However, many believe that these substitutions sparked complacency amongst the Man City team.
"It was a really good game, especially after a tricky Champions League game. It was tricky against a team that is fighting in a difficult position for them. When you make a lot of substitutions at the same time, you tend to drop off but we got three points and are thinking of the next [game]".
Guardiola typically does not make many changes to a team in order to prevent the chance of unsettling the team. When questioned on this, the Man City boss stated "No. It was completely different because the guys that came out in the second half, it was the same approach as the beginning of the game. Just for the fact we had to play in three days in important stages, we had to make changes."
The Man City boss was questioned as to whether he had the upcoming Bayern Munich fixture in mind whilst making these second half substitutions, confirming that the game was certainly in mind.
"Yeah definitely. Sometimes it's difficult though with the guys that came in with the rhythm and when you make one, two changes and the rest have that rhythm, you have to take that rhythm. But when it's five or six, they don't have that rhythm and the guys who were playing lost it a bit."
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The upcoming Bayern Munich game
Man City played Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals last Tuesday evening, with the hosts extending their unbeaten Champions League home run to 25 games after defeating the German Champions 3-0.
They will travel to Munich for the second leg with the hope of progressing to the semi-finals, where they will face either Real Madrid or Chelsea.
Guardiola provided fans with an update following the game in terms of injuries, as well as showing that he will not be tuning in to Arsenal's game against West Ham tomorrow afternoon.
"Well tomorrow, I don't know what time they [Arsenal] play but I will be taking a look at the game we played against Bayern Munich because I still haven't watched the game we played."
"We have no fresh injuries. Everything is fine." he told beIN SPORTS.
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Arsenal game is 'a final'
The title race between Man City and Arsenal has been the talk of the season thus far and with the two sides fairing off against each other in the coming weeks, Guardiola said that the game is 'like a final' and if the Manchester side lose, then the race is 'over'.
“They have had an incredible run. It’s just been win, win and win for us. What you have to do is to be in there. And we are. I would say it’s a final - for the chance to play more finals - because if you lose this game, it will be almost over."
“So this [win] was important for us, for the final we have against them." he told reporters.