Man City's Guardiola 'wants more protection' for all players in the Premier League
- Nima Tavallaey Roodsari (@NimaTavRood)
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager began by looking back to when their record breaking streak began away against Bournemouth saying: "No one was expecting us to win 16 games in a row at that moment. We had drawn at home with Everton in the previous game and we were happy to score a late winner against Bournemouth because after that came the international break and when that was over we had to face Liverpool. I had no idea back in August that we would have so many points now, I’m glad to be where we are but I didn’t expect it."
Guardiola then focused on the physical side of the Premier League stating that: "The physicality in England is stronger and you have to deal with that. You have to be strong enough to match the physicality of your opponents, and that’s where the referees need to control what is a foul and what is not a foul. Kevin especially could have been out for a long time, but I am not suggesting Alli and Kane are dangerous players. They are both top players, but sometimes this can happen when both teams are fighting to win. I am not just asking for protection for my players but for all players. We were lucky against Tottenham when Nicolás Otamendi put his leg high against Kane; he didn’t mean to do that but Kane could have been injured. He deserved protection. It was the same earlier in the season when Sadio Mané fouled Ederson."