'Every team' - Enzo Maresca agrees with Pep Guardiola over bold Newcastle United claim

The Magpies’ winless run in the Premier League extended to five games after Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer scored either side of Alexander Isak’s equaliser.

And Marseca revealed after the game he had a specific message for his players in order to avoid being dragged into a “basketball” where Eddie Howe’s side could “destroy” his side.

The Blues boss said: “There are games, especially today, where if you do a basketball game, they [will] destroy us because Newcastle are strong, they are good, they have some good players in transition.

“The reason why I was telling [my players] calm, was this type of game is that before you attack, you need to make 15, 20 or 25 passes. 

“If you want to attack with two passes, they are long distance and they can recover the ball and create and cause problems. The reason why I was shouting all game ‘calm, calm, calm, make passes…’ was because against them if you do an up and down game, they’d destroy us, they’d destroy every team.”

Maresca’s words are very similar to the ones spoken by Guardiola in August last year. It came after Man City won 1-0 at the Etihad via Julian Alvarez’s goal.

“We spoke a lot; in an open game, in a transition game, they will destroy us, so we have to make a lot of control with a lot of passes,” said Guardiola.

“That’s why we put a lot of players in the middle to have extra, extra passes, and in the right moment we will find the moment.”