A furious Pep sees bigger picture after City stranded on the coast

THIS was not a day for berating a battered and bruised squad.

- JOE BRAY

It took Pep Guardiola a few minutes to calm down at full-time, but he eventually came to that sensible conclusion at Bournemouth.

Guardiola had teased some positive injury news on the eve of Manchester City's trip south. 'You will see tomorrow, he hinted.

Twenty four hours later and Kyle Walker, Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku stepped off the team coach at the Vitality Stadium.

Guardiola offered an unhelpful diagnosis on the absent John Stones and Ruben Dias pre match, before taking his usual seat in the away dugout to stew for a few minutes. He often spends time before an away game taking a moment to himself, but this felt like he was more agitated than usual.

Something wasn't right. Just two minutes in and Guardiola was reshuffling his pack, beckoning Nathan Ake and Manu Akanji over to change something tactically - Bournemouth had already forced Ederson into a double save.

There was no shortage of application from City, but the intensity and finesse was lacking. Ederson kept Bournemouth out again, but sent three passes needlessly out of play or to an opposition shirt. Walker was all over the place all afternoon on his return and Ilkay Gundogan was sloppy again.