Pep Guardiola was glad to see Manchester City's clinical best return as Sergio Aguero's hat-trick closed the gap Premier League leaders Liverpool to just two points in a 3-1 win over Arsenal on Sunday.
The champions were let off the hook by Liverpool's 1-1 draw with Leicester on Wednesday, 24 hours after City's shock 2-1 defeat by Newcastle with what Guardiola described as an unrecognisable performance.
This time City did take advantage of playing a day before Jurgen Klopp's side, who travel to West Ham on Monday, to pile on the pressure and jump back ahead of Tottenham, who had leapfrogged City into second on Saturday.
"After what happened at Newcastle, everybody thought we would be seven points behind, everyone expected Liverpool to beat Leicester," said Guardiola.
"But a lot of things are going to happen until the end of the season, a lot of games will be tough. That is the real Premier League, you know better than me what that means and what we have to do.
"The most important thing today was the players showed why they are a good team. We didn't recognise ourselves in the previous game at Newcastle. Today, at least, we came back."
- Gundogan's delightful pass
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"We need time to reach our target and need to be calm, patient."
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