Pep Guardiola jokes about his 'the Harry Kane team' comments

Pep Guardiola joked about calling Tottenham Hotspur ‘the Harry Kane team’ after losing to the Lilywhites in north London on Sunday.

The Man City caused quite a bit of controversy in 2017 when he labelled Tottenham ‘the Harry Kane team’, with then-Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino saying the comment was ‘sad’ and ‘unnecessary’.

Nearly six years on, Kane scored the winner in Tottenham’s 1-0 win over Man City on Sunday evening, becoming the club’s all-time top goalscorer in the process.

Speaking after the game, Guardiola joked about his previous comments and congratulated Kane on his achievement: “I’m not going to say the Harry Kane team otherwise Pochettino will be grumpy with me and I don’t want it.

“On behalf of Man City I can say congrats on this incredible milestone. He’s an exceptional player.”

Guardiola also took the time to assess his team’s performance in the defeat – a third consecutive away defeat in the Premier League:

“We started really well in the first 15 minutes until the goal we conceded. After that we played a good first half, the second half was not as good. There were too many interruptions and we cannot control. We had our chances against a team that defend very well.

“They defend with nine players really well. The squad is fantastic. I think we always play really well against them but for whatever reason we cannot seem to win or score goals.”