MANCHESTER -- Pep Guardiola has warned that Manchester City must be more clinical if they are to be successful despite a comfortable 3-0 victory over bottom-of-the-table West Bromwich Albion.
City took their goal tally to 101 in all competitions for the season as they re-established a 15-point lead at the top of the Premier League with strikes from Fernandinho, Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero. But they had 19 shots in total, including 10 on target.
The visitors didn't have a single shot until the 88th minute and while Guardiola was complimentary about his players, he said they can't afford to waste chances particularly in the later stages of the Champions League.
"I'm happy because I feel it was one of the best performances of the season," he told a news conference. "To play better is quite difficult but in knockout games, or important finals, we must be more clinical or we will be in trouble.
"We created an amazing game to play, a joy to watch and to play that way but we missed a lot of chances and against top teams it will be a problem if we don't improve.
"It could have been seven or eight because there were clear chances but hopefully we can improve."
There was again a number of controversial incidents when City players were caught by tough challenges that only received yellow cards.
De Bruyne managed to ride a cynical trip from James McLean while Brahim Diaz was caught by a thigh-high studs challenge from Matt Phillips.
Guardiola has already called on referees to protect players, particularly after losing Leroy Sane for up to seven weeks after a bad challenge in Sunday's FA Cup win at Cardiff City.
"I've said what I said so we spoke with the fourth official," the City boss said. "They have an opinion, I have another one, they're the bosses, I accept that. I have to accept it.
"Today we were lucky, three or four days ago we were unlucky with Leroy. The image speaks for itself. I could repeat what I said after the last game but it's not necessary. The chat was good, that's all."
West Brom boss Alan Pardew thought it was a poor challenge from Phillips but felt the crowd were influenced by Guardiola's comments at the weekend.
And he thought that City midfielder Fernandinho was guilty of a poor challenge in the first half on midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak.
"He's a winger and in desperate situations wingers can make poor challenges," Pardew said. "It was a poor challenge, make no mistake about that
"I think Fernandinho made a similar one in the middle of the pitch. I'm not sure if the referee saw it.
"I thought Pep's comments at the weekend affected the crowd. Every challenge they were saying: 'You're not protecting our players referee!'
"There were a few songs sung about him but I actually thought he had a decent game. His calls were correct and it was a yellow card for Phillips no doubt."