Guardiola calls on Man City to be ‘more aggressive’ as Walker slams ‘unacceptable’ draw at Forest

Kyle Walker has said Manchester City’s 1-1 draw against Nottingham Forest is an “unacceptable” result after their win at Arsenal on Wednesday.

City went top of the Premier League following the 3-1 victory in north London but fell behind the Gunners after Mikel Arteta’s side picked up a 4-2 win against Aston Villa on Saturday lunchtime.

Pep Guardiola’s men took the lead at the City Ground to go back on top but were held to a 1-1 draw after Chris Wood scored in the 84th minute.

Walker has urged his team to “do better as a team” after they dropped two points and thinks “every game” has to be treated like a “cup final” if you want to win the league.

“First and foremost we go to the Emirates and play the game we did and then come here, it’s unacceptable,” Walker said.

“If we want to compete with teams near the top we need to win. We missed a few chances and we need to do better as a team.

“Sometimes it’s football and sometimes it’s emotion. Every game should be treated the same – like a cup final. What can I say other than it is unacceptable. We have to stick together as a group.

“The senior members of the team put our thoughts across. That is just not acceptable. We have to give credit to Nottingham Forest. They dug in and hung on. We have to do better.”

Guardiola was less brutal in his assessment of the game.

The Spanish manager says his players performed really well but did not take their chances.

“It was a brilliant performance, we played really good but we didn’t score,” Guardiola said. “At this level you have to score and that is why we dropped points.

“The first half should already be 2-0 or 3-0, we conceded one shot on target and we dropped points. We are sad and disappointed but the way we played was really good.

“We missed the chances we missed because today was not our day to win the game.

“We played a really good game. We missed the second goal and then after the second the third would have arrived. We have to look at ourselves, we can do better.

“Today we missed too many chances. It happens in football. Today we were much better than the opponent but we have to score goals. We didn’t do it so we have to blame ourselves.”

Guardiola picked up a yellow card for his furious reaction to Graham Scott’s decision not to award a foul – and likely red card – when Haaland went down under a challenge from Joe Worrall when through on goal.

“We don’t make any excuses. I could say many things that have happened this season,” he said. “I am not a guy who is here to talk about things we cannot control.

“I don’t know, it looks like the last man (Haaland) went to the keeper and fell down. Why would you fall down when you are one against one to the keeper.

“I was complaining to the fourth official, why would Haaland stop when he was one-on-one to score a goal and after that I got a well deserved yellow card.”