Pep Guardiola pinpoints Man City weakness despite consecutive victories | OneFootball

After a second consecutive victory for Manchester City, Pep Guardiola warned that his side had not played well, lacked composure and remained some way off a return to their imperious best.

City followed up an unconvincing 2-0 triumph over Leicester City last week with a 4-1 win at home to West Ham United on Sunday which was not as comfortable as the scoreline would suggest.

West Ham had the best chances of the opening ten minutes before a fortuitous own goal from Vladimir Coufal nudged City in front. Erling Haaland headed the defending champions into a 2-0 first-half lead, following some great build-up play from Savinho, while a second for the Norwegian and a tap-in from Phil Foden widened the margin to four goals inside the opening hour.

Niclas Fullkrug reduced the deficit for the visitors, who have lost their last two matches by an aggregate score of 1-9, yet City's boss was also worried about his side's display. "You judge the results," Guardiola told the assembled media at his post-match press conference. "Our performance was not good. We saw in many years our level. We are not at our level.

"Don't misunderstand me. I'm so happy. I will sleep better until the FA Cup. But he asked if the old Manchester City and the way we play is back? No. You have to know it. You watched the games for years. We're not at the level, come on.

Pep Guardiola didn't disguise his emotions against West Ham / Gareth Copley/GettyImages

"Of course there are an incredible lot of positives. But if you ask me the team is playing like it has played the years ago, no, absolutely not."

West Ham manager Julen Lopetegui agreed that his side had put in a decent performance - particularly in comparison to the 5-0 thrashing dished out by Liverpool last weekend. "The match today was very, very different [to Liverpool]," the under-pressure coach said. "We did not take advantage of our clear situations."

"There were glimpses of brilliance," was as much as Guardiola would concede. "The work ethic was unbelievable, but still not the composure. We accelerate everything. We have struggled with results recently but the last two victories are good and we did not lose for three games."

The Premier League champions host fourth-tier Salford City in the third round of the FA Cup next Saturday. The club backed by a glut of former Manchester United players will be hoping that Manchester City are still searching for their best selves at the Etihad.