City withstand late barrage
Pep Guardiola called on Manchester City to learn from a nervy finish to a seventh straight Premier League victory as a 2-1 win at Watford moved the champions five points clear of Liverpool at the top.
City's goals came either side of half-time as Leroy Sane chested home before Riyad Mahrez doubled the visitors' lead early in the second period. However, despite dominating for the majority of the game, Guardiola's men had to withstand a nervy finish after Abdoulaye Doucoure bundled in five minutes from time.
"We have in mind the last minutes, (in) the last minutes anything could happen," said Guardiola. "I think we played 65-70 minutes at a top, top level. After 0-2 we lost a little bit our control. We suffered, but that is what it is. We have to learn from what happened in the last 20-25 minutes."
However, captain Vincent Kompany cautioned that Manchester City will not always win playing "fantasy football".
"It was a good old Premier League game, as soon as they scored long balls started coming, they are extremely physical up front. Credit to us for staying strong," Kompany told BT Sport. "I don't think we ever lose focus. We had chances to make it 3-0 and anything can happen. We managed the game pretty well. You can't win every game playing fantasy football."
Guardiola made six changes to his starting line-up despite also missing Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne through injury. Yet, City were still too strong for the dogged hosts with Watford thankful to goalkeeper Ben Foster for the visitors not racking up the 5-0 and 6-0 thrashings they did on their two previous visits to Vicarage Road.
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