Pep Guardiola pointed to Manchester United's passing statistics to defend the motivation of his Manchester City players. Liverpool's superiority in the Premier League is so great that the cup competitions are the best chance of success for the Blues this season, and the manager talked up the "finals" of Newcastle and Real Madrid coming up in separate interviews on Sunday.
A flat performance from the Blues that saw them slump to losing both Manchester derbies for the first time in a decade added to the idea that the focus is on the knockout competitions, but Guardiola refused to accept that there had been a slackening of standards.
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