'The players realised' - Pep Guardiola saw crucial change in Man City squad before Ipswich win
Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City are edging closer to their best after a fluent performance saw them dismantle Ipswich at Portman Road to climb back into the Premier League top four.
City went on a woeful run before Christmas to slump to seventh and out of title contention, but have responded with six games unbeaten since Boxing Day. Draws with Everton and Brentford are a reminder that they are far from clear of their rut, while Guardiola was adamant that City were far from 'back' when they put four past West Ham.
But the 6-0 win over Ipswich was their biggest victory of the season and double-goalscorer Phil Foden described it as their best performance of the campaign. Guardiola said his players have started believing in themselves again and while he stopped short of saying his side are back, he could see traits of success in the win at Ipswich.
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Speaking to Sky Sports, Guardiola said: "We are back to doing things that define this team for the last 10 years. Really pleased for the three points and to climb into qualification for the Champions League for next season, that will be so tough.
"Maybe not our best but closer with the consistency we have in our game. Most of them didn't happen in the previous games that we won."
He added: "The result was important for obvious reasons but the players realised what we were. A long time we were not like we were - for many reasons, injuries but not just that. We realised that if we do this then okay we can compete or can be a team enjoying doing what we like to do. Hopefully the players can feel it. We talked a lot recently about what we missed."
Guardiola pointed to the return of Ruben Dias, and praised Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden for their role in the ruthless win, calling De Bruyne's recent form 'exceptional'. The manager took De Bruyne and Foden off with half an hour to play along with Erling Haaland, taking an opportunity ahead of a must-win Champions League trip to Paris Saint-Germain this week.
"Of course, after 4-0, 5-0, I took a night in Paris. They play yesterday, we play today. We have to travel a long trip," he said. "We come back late, and prepare the final. We have two finals [the final two Champions League games]. If we win two we qualify, win one - a big possibility [to qualify] but we still have to get the points because create the problems ourselves. Especially against Feyenoord, even Lisbon. But in that moments we had a lot of problems, we couldn't compete for a lot of reasons. Hopefully can continue in Paris and the next games."
