Premier League: Pep Guardiola expects Manchester City to get better

Reigning champions Manchester City have returned to winning ways last weekend with a 2-1 victory over Newcastle United, but rivals Chelsea and Liverpool are two points ahead after having won all their four league matches so far this season. Manchester City are two points off the pace after having been held to a surprising 1-1 draw at Wolverhampton two weeks ago. Raheem Sterling and Kyle Walker scored on Saturday to see off Newcastle at the Etihad Stadium. "We have the same points as this time last season in that moment," Pep Guardiola told journalists in the post-match news conference on Saturday. "Our opponents have more points than then, Chelsea had dropped points and Liverpool a few. We knew their quality. We want get our best level but I am so surprised at what happened last season." In fact, during the last campaign Manchester City have broken the Premier League points record and won the title by a landslide, 19 points ahead of second-placed Manchester United. "When you come back from the World Cup you never know how you're going to react in terms of consistency," Guardiola added. "We beat Chelsea in the Community Shield and, in general, in the four games we were better than the other teams. That's what we are looking for: to be better. Sometimes we win, sometimes not. To be better is to control, create more chances and concede fewer. In the four games – even the Community Shield – it is what happened. We will improve. It's almost impossible after the World Cup, after what happened last season, mentally for the players and everybody to be in the best condition. We need more time and after the international break the season starts properly in terms of having games every three days. What we have to do is what we have to do – try to be better than the opponent every single game, try to follow what we spoke about and prepared. This period, in the five official games we've played, it's happened. We would like to score more goals but we created the chances." Manchester City are currently 4/6 at Bet365 to win the Premier League title again this season.