Graham Potter admits Manchester City’s defeat is ‘painful’ and Pep Guardiola urgesTodd Bailey not to sack Chelsea boss

Pep Guardi­o­la urges Chelsea not to fire Gra­ham Potter

Guardi­o­la’s Man­ches­ter City suf­fered a 4–0 FA Cup defeat in what Pot­ter called a ‘tough and painful’ loss.

But despite Chelsea’s fifth defeat in sev­en games, the City boss told Stam­ford Bridge co-own­er Todd Bai­ley that the man­ag­er “needs more time”.

With three goals scored before half-time, the fans roared in sup­port of for­mer boss Thomas Tuchel.

A spec­tac­u­lar free-kick from Riyad Mahrez, a penal­ty from Julian Alvarez and a fine fin­ish from Phil Foden in the 38th minute put an end to Chelsea’s predicament.

Mid­field­er Mahrez scored the lone goal in the Pre­mier League clash between the two sides on Thurs­day, earn­ing a penal­ty in the sec­ond half.

An injury-rid­den Chelsea were booed at both half-time and reg­u­lar time as City beat them in a clos­er match.

Pot­ter said: “Every­one had a tough first half and it was tough. We were behind a very, very good team.

“We weren’t good and we were qui­et in the first 20 min­utes but could­n’t attack the back line enough.

“Man­ches­ter City are very good at stop­ping it, but they also fall vic­tim to us.”

And of Chelsea’s under­per­for­mance: “You can make excus­es, you can look for rea­sons, you can say it’s not enough. Both answers are correct.

We must con­tin­ue to improve and unite. It’s not good because obvi­ous­ly we are suf­fer­ing as a foot­ball club.

“We under­stand the frus­tra­tion of the fans and we respect that.

“Because of the lack of results, there are always oth­er opin­ions, neg­a­tive opin­ions and criticism.

“It’s part of the job, part of the challenge”

The Eng­lish­man Pot­ter believes Chelsea will have to be as patient as Guardi­o­la spent his first sea­son at City.

And the Spaniards agree.

“I would say to Todd Baw­ley, ‘Take your time,’ ” Guardi­o­la said.

“What he did at Brighton was extra­or­di­nary, but every coach needs time. He need­ed time in his first season.”

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