Pep Guardiola said that Jack Grealish's goal early in the second half changed his mind about using Manchester City substitutions against West Ham.
The Blues went in at the break 2-0 after a wretched 45 minutes that saw their defence horribly exposed through the pace of Jarrod Bowen and the guile of Michail Antonio. A response was sorely needed, and despite sending the same XI out for the second half the manager was planning a change as he looked to bring Ilkay Gundogan into the game.
However, Grealish scored in the 49th minute that spurred the visitors on and changed the atmosphere in a stadium that had been buoyant as they bid an emotional farewell to Mark Noble. City pushed on and, without using any substitutes over the course of 90 minutes, grabbed an equaliser and also earned a penalty that would have won them the game had Riyad Mahrez not seen his effort saved.
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Guardiola likened the situation to their 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace, when despite not being ahead in the game he felt the team was performing well - considerably better than in the first half, too.
"I started to think about using Gundo because he is an incredibly good runner in the central positions where they have a bit of space. Rice and Soucek followed Bernardo [Silva] and Kevin [De Bruyne] but the fact we scored early on and Jack got his momentum and Riyad was participating more than in the first half I decided to continue.
"It's quite similar to Crystal Palace where we didn't win. Why don't you change? The same."
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