Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola was left delighted with their 2-0 win against Sheffield United.
City won via goals from Rodri and Julian Alvarez.
Guardiola said: “(We were) uncomfortable the last three times we were here.
“The first part was silent. The body language of players didn’t communicate, talk, laugh, or shout.
“It was a little bit, ‘okay we have to play’.
“In football, you have to have something inside. At half-time for the first time I didn’t talk one word about tactics – I took a chair and said ‘guys when you go out with a smile on your face and enjoy, we are going to win’.
“In the second half, the first 15 to 20 minutes was the best minutes we had, and that helped us win the game.”
Guardiola also said: “We made in the past a lot of winning streaks, but never during that time did we think how many we were going to win.
“We only thought about the next game. We felt in title races against Liverpool that if we lose a game we are not going to win the Premier League and that’s why they pushed us to the highest level.
“I felt at the beginning of the season, qualify for Champions League (knockout stage), win the three trophies (Community Shield, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup) – we won just two – and in the Premier League, just be there.
“I had the feeling we could have more points for the way we performed. We performed really well against Liverpool and Palace and we could be there. It is what it is.
“The position we are in is more than fine. We are going to lose games, they are going to lose games.
“We’re trying to lose as few as possible.”
