Football
Jonathan Smith, Manchester City correspondent 8y

Bacary Sagna hoping Manchester City can keep up their winning streak

SWANSEA -- Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola joked that the club needed to lose a game to inject a dose of reality -- but Bacary Sagna wants to keep the winning streak going for as long as possible.

Guardiola told a news conference ahead of this week's double-header against the Swans that "maybe we need one defeat to make things calm down" after a 100 percent start.

His side went on to win both games -- in the EFL Cup and Premier League -- to make it 10 wins out of 10 games in all competitions, and Sagna said: "As a player you want to win every single game.

"It will be hard to keep going, keep winning -- but it's a challenge, and as a player you want challenges.

"Of course it is never easy to keep going like this, but we want to keep the form we are in.

"Last season we started really well and we have to keep remembering what happened. We started with five wins, didn't concede a goal and at the end of the season we finished fourth.

"We have to remember that and keep working hard as a team. We are all giving our maximum, and as long as we do that we can achieve great things."

City were pushed all the way by Swansea at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday before two goals from Sergio Aguero and another from Raheem Sterling secured a 3-1 win.

It meant Guardiola picked up his sixth victory in the Premier League, equalling Carlo Ancelotti's record for a winning start by a new managers.

But Sagna said the tough match showed there was still plenty of room for improvement.

"There are a lot of things to take out of this start to the season -- everything is not perfect," he added. "We won at Swansea but maybe struggled a little bit more than we did in the past."

City face Celtic in the Champions League on Wednesday with an opportunity to equal the club's record streak of 11 straight victories, set under Manuel Pellegrini in the 2014-15 season.

However, Sagna warned that it would not be easy in Scotland despite Celtic's 7-0 defeat at Barcelona in their Group C opener.

"I played against them for Arsenal in a Champions League playoff, and it's never easy -- they have a massive crowd, big atmosphere and some quality players," he added.

"They lost their first game by a big margin so in this second one they will want to show their character, step up in front of their own fans and give us a hard time.

This is a totally different competition, but we want to be involved in all of them so we need a good performance."

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