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Pep Guardiola hails Man City’s ‘ruthless’ streak after 8-0 drubbing

Pep Guardiola saluted Manchester City's "ruthless" streak after they romped to a club-record 8-0 demolition of hapless Watford in the English Premier League on Saturday.

Guardiola was delighted that his team did not ease off after storming to a 5-0 lead in just 18 minutes at the Etihad Stadium.

This memorable victory came three days after a 3-0 Champions League win over Shakhtar Donetsk, continuing City's impressive response following their shock 3-2 defeat at Norwich City the previous weekend.

"What I like the most is normally when it's 5-0 at half-time, the second half is not serious, it's boring. But we did the opposite and we were more aggressive and made a very good second half," Guardiola said.

"We were ruthless in terms of five shots, five goals. Sometimes, we shoot 25 times or 15 or 20 and you cannot do it.

"People still don't understand, journalists, pundits, former players, losing games is part of life. Opponents always deserve respect.

"The same feeling I have now I had after Norwich, so it was not a bad performance.

"We can lose games, but the important thing is the approach and the way you react as a team."

Watford manager Quique Sanchez Flores apologised to Hornets fans after his team collapsed to the heaviest league defeat in the club's history.

City looked as if they would score every time they attacked.

Bernardo Silva scored his first City hat-trick and the other goals came from David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Riyad Mahrez, Nicolas Otamendi and Man-of-the-Match Kevin de Bruyne.

The only disappointment for them was that they failed to equal the EPL record win of 9-0 by Manchester United against Ipswich Town in 1995. - AFP

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