Guardiola: “I don’t want to be a happy flower!”

Manchester City beat Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday in a comeback, 4-2 victory. City was behind 2-0 at halftime with the grim outlook of suffering back-to-back Premier League losses for the first time since 2018 looming over them.

But then Julian Alvarez, Erling Haaland, and Riyad Mahrez hit the back of the net in a span of 12 minutes in the second half. Mahrez added a late second goal to make the final 4-2 as well as move City just five points behind Arsenal in the Premier League standings.

Guardiola’s post-game reaction after City comeback win

Happy, happy, flowers, rainbows, butterflies, right? WRONG.

Sorry for yelling. But despite this beautiful comeback story, City boss Pep Guardiola is not happy and he wants it known. After the game was over, he laid into the players for their lack of passion and said that if they play like that against Arsenal, they will get destroyed.

City will face Premier League leaders Arsenal twice again this season, and despite inching closer in the standings, Guardiola says his team is not the same as they once were, and they need to be more passionate.

“I want a reaction from all the club, all the organization, not just the players,” said Guardiola. “We’re a happy flowers team. Happy flowers, all nice and good. No, I don’t want to be a happy flower. I want to beat Arsenal.”

Guardiola is mad at everyone...no one is off the hook. That includes you, City fans. Guardiola says the fans need to have higher expectations of the team.

“Passion, fire and desire to want to win (was missing) from the first minute. Our fans were silent for 45 minutes,” Guardiola said. “Our fans must push us, must demand more, have to shout. Today we were lucky but nine times, 10 times, you don’t come back.”