Pep Guardiola has been forthright with his praises for the recent performances of his Manchester City squad even as the multi-award winning coach highlighted the importance of scoring goals ahead of the trip to St James’ Park on Sunday.
City – who were imperious in thrashing Leeds United 7-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night – are certainly most mindful of the fact that a victory against Newcastle on Sunday afternoon will guarantee them a seat top of the table on Christmas day.
The midweek victory was City’s seventh consecutive win in the Premier League and the Spaniard’s side is looking in fine form to continue their impressive winning run in wrapping up the remaining three matches of this calendar year.
The reigning Premier League champions head to St James’ Park fresh from Tuesday’s thumping win over Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds, one point ahead of Liverpool in the table.
An Etihad retinue comprising Phil Foden, Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish, Riyad Mahrez, John Stones and Nathan Ake all scored against the Yorkshire-based club in midweek to see Manchester City surpassing the 500 Premier League goals total under the management of the Spaniard.
The cold and calculated demolition of Leeds comes in the wake of a number of hard-fought victories of smaller margins, with City having just barely edged past Wolves in a 1-0 win last Sunday.
Ahead of the trip north to face Newcastle this weekend, Pep Guardiola has spoken about the importance scoring goals can have on the confidence of his City side.
“You need to score goals to win games, that is no secret. We have found a way to score goals from different places in different ways and Tuesday was a good example.”
“Scoring goals also brings confidence, for the team, for the players and that will be important in helping us to win the next game. If they are know they are capable of scoring goals like this then that confidence will help us achieve our goals.”