There was a lively atmosphere and a 'few words' said between the Manchester City squad at half time of their Premier League win over Chelsea.
Pep Guardiola named a strong side at Stamford Bridge but used an experimental formation with Joao Cancelo at right-midfield and Bernardo Silva sitting deeper alongside Rodri, who spent much of his time helping out his centre-backs. City were sloppy in the first 45 minutes, but improved after the break when returning to their more familiar shape after Cancelo and Kyle Walker had been substituted.
With a more solid platform, Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez came on after an hour and soon combined to break the deadlock and create the game's only goal.
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Reflecting on the game, Grealish admitted that there was a 'lively' discussion, and praised Guardiola's second-half changes.
"Yeah it was [lively]," he said. "I won't go into too much detail. The manager changed a few things, had a few words. We come out and the first 20-30 minutes especially we dominated and had more chances. When we got the goal we had control of the game but they had a few themselves."
Teammate John Stones, impressive at the back, gave a little more detail, explaining how much of the tactical discussion centred around keeping the ball better after a 'rushed' first-half performance.
Stones said: "We rushed a lot of our play in the first half. We tried to play too many crucial passes that got cut out. We didn't retain the ball as well as we usually do.
"We spoke at half time, knew we had to use the ball better and wait for space to open. Credit to Chelsea, they played really compact, we couldn't get many balls through the lines and had to play wider. It all came together in the second half, a few big moments, blocks, defending that we've been working on in training. It came off today."
Grealish also opened up on the instructions Guardiola gave him when he was introduced, saying the manager tasked him with being more direct and attacking than Phil Foden had been in the same position.
"The manager said, when you come on, he said be aggressive, attack Azpilicueta, and stay high and wide," Grealish revealed.
"You sit there on the bench and watching the game, observing what Phil's doing in the same position if I come on. I always want to start, but I've been here 18 months and I'm still getting used to it. I'm enjoying it, a great group of lads and a pleasure to work with Pep."
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