Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola claims his players were ‘hungover’ during May’s FA Cup final defeat to Manchester United.
Erik ten Hag’s side inflicted a surprise defeat on the Premier League champions at Wembley with a 2-1 victory five months ago.
The defeat came a week after City were crowned Premier League champions for the fourth time in a row, with the likes of Jack Grealish, John Stones and Kyle Walker all seen out in Manchester that night reveling in the celebrations.
City were beaten 2-1 by Spurs in the EFL Cup on Wednesday, their first loss since the final at Wembley.
It was put to Guardiola after the game that it was the first time his team has lost since the match at Wembley.
And the Spaniard took the opportunity to claim his team were hungover.
‘This is the news, not that we lose, but how long it has been since we lose. Of course, with the FA Cup final we were a little bit hungover, but it is good news.’
After the match at Wembley, Guardiola blamed his tactics for the defeat.
‘It’s my mistake – the game plan was not good,’ he said.
‘The players know it, the reason why. Tactically, it was not good. I had the feeling it was not good today. You plan a game for different positions, but didn’t work – it’s as simple as that.
‘The crosses came to nothing when we came to the byline; they had one shot where we gave the goal away, and then the goal for Mainoo – no more than that.
‘As always when we play against United, we more or less had control and normally we score from what we created in the second half, but we were not able to do it.’
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