What Pep Guardiola told his players as Man City make point

Pep Guardiola told his players to demand more from themselves as they faced a defeat at Luton that would consign them to five Premier League games without a win.

Manchester City had dominated the first half at Kenilworth Road but switched off just before the break to allow Elijah Adebayo to score for Luton and send the ground into wild celebrations. Guardiola thought City were better in the first half than the second, but goals from Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish just past the hour mark gave them a 2-1 win that ends their run without a victory.

As much as the City boss has seen plenty of positives from his players, the coach was not interested in excuses as they looked for a way to get back into the game. Instead, he urged them to act like big players and big teams do rather than feel sorry for themselves for conceding again from a position of strength.

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"We thought about it but I said to them what are we going to do, feel sorry for ourselves? It's football, it's life. It has happened," said Guardiola.

"If they score a second, are we going to complain again and say we were unlucky? Strikers: be more aggressive and score goals, and defend the cross better in the last minutes and be positive. We have to demand more of ourselves. The big teams, like this team is, have to find a way in those situations.

"I don't like to see the players when we won 4-0 18 games in a row. That doesn't define who we really are. We were four games without winning, 1-0 down in a tough stadium where they put three strikers with long balls at the end.

"It is not easy against that and we needed the goal from Bernardo to put the ball