Pep Guardiola said this week he has everything he needs at Manchester City as speculation increases over if - or when - he will sign a new contract.
His reaction to last week's 95th-minute winner against Fulham seemed to be telling. He said it was the moment of his seven years at City and the celebrations at full time 'reminded him why he does this job'. Seven days later, and another late goal deep into injury time showed him the exact opposite side of those Fulham celebrations.
After a slow start against Brentford, City made life hard for themselves again, and Guardiola's warnings of some players holding back with the World Cup on the horizon were spot on. But the manner of City's frustrating defeat showed Guardiola another aspect of the team spirit he has built at the Etihad - which may make the decision to stay a little easier, despite the disappointing result.
ALSO READ: City player ratings vs Brentford
In his pre-match programme notes, Guardiola alluded to the contributions of the City support so far this season in the final game before the Premier League takes a break. He also outlined a 'non-negotiable' in his side that will help them be successful.
“We can lose when the opponent is better than us, that is football," he wrote. "But we must always play to win and try to show the right attitude. This is non-negotiable for me. Be humble, work hard and respect our opponents. If we do those things, good things can happen.”
In the opening 30 minutes against Brentford, the opponent were indeed better than City. Brentford used the long ball effectively, swarmed to win the second ball, and were desperately unlucky not to go in ahead at half-time after Ivan Toney's header was cancelled out by Phil Foden's thunderbolt just before the break.
Despite playing poorly for 45 minutes, City produced a moment of brilliance to draw themselves level and used Foden's goal as a platform to try and impose themselves in the second half. City were backed by the crowd, who chose opportune moments to encourage the team and back up Guardiola's pre-match praise for them. Ultimately, City remained patient even when Brentford were battling for every ball, and tried to let their quality get them back in the game.
They didn't do it by playing particularly well, or even creating many good moves to split open the defence, but they relied on a tried-and-tested system of patiently keeping the ball and waiting for a chance to open up. Sometimes it does open up, like it did against Fulham. Sometimes it doesn't, like against Brentford.
If Guardiola is considering his future in the next few weeks - with no City game allowing some family time before a trip to Abu Dhabi where owner Sheikh Mansour will surely be - this kind of game could be as important as the Fulham one in making his mind up.
He has done the hard work at City, and the squad has a base-level of performance that can sustain the team even if they have an off-day. They were close to scraping a draw, but were instead reminded that nothing is guaranteed in the Premier League. Guardiola's programme assessment of losing when the opponent is better was eerily prophetic in hindsight.
As the manager noted on Friday - he couldn't replicate what he has at the Etihad anywhere else. The result may have been poor, but the performance and battling qualities when most of the starting XI were below-par could have strangely encouraged the boss. Even if it didn't, the challenge of battling for another title knowing nobody will gift it to them could spur him on when he has time to reflect over the next month.
READ MORE:
