Guardiola credits ‘new’ Chelsea after dramatic draw

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola admitted Chelsea deserved a point after his side were pegged back by the Blues in a dramatic 4-4 draw at Stamford Bridge.

Cole Palmer kept his nerve to score a penalty against his former club in injury time as Chelsea fought back after City midfielder Rodri saw his shot on goal deflect in off the unlucky Thiago Silva.

It was the second breathless encounter Chelsea have been involved in in six days following the 4-1 win over Spurs on Monday and Guardiola said he had no complaints despite his treble-winning side relinquishing the lead three times.

“It could be better, it could be worse, it was a good advert for the Premier League,” Guardiola said.

“They have built something new with lots of new players and maybe their results at the beginning were not good but they played really good with quality, we had our moments, they had their moments.

“At 3-3 we got the deflection and were a bit lucky but it is what it is. They have quality and push you into positions that isn’t easy to solve. I think it was a fair result, both teams played to win.

“When you are in the lead and it is extra time you think you should do it, but the penalty was a penalty and the quality from us defending was not good enough around the box.

“But we created a lot of chances and it is the first time that I have been here at Stamford Bridge and one of my teams have created so many chances, even with Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

“But they did too. Always I give credit to opponents because everyone wants to beat us.”