Pep Guardiola has hit back at Everton over their postponed game with Manchester City.
Monday’s final game at Goodison Park was cancelled just four hours ahead of kick-off following several positive coronavirus cases within the visitors’ squad.
Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus were among five players that were rendered unavailable by Covid-19 diagnoses before their aborted trip to Merseyside.
Although City did not disclose the identity of the other three individuals, Ederson and Tommy Doyle both said on social media they are self-isolating.
The Blues confirmed they would be seeking ‘full disclosure’ from the Premier League of the information provided by City ahead of the late postponement.
Carlo Ancelotti followed up his club’s statement in the pre-match press conference to preview the New Year’s Day visit of West Ham United.
“The announcement was four hours [before kick-off],” said Ancelotti.
“We were at the hotel but it doesn’t matter if it’s early, it doesn’t change the situation which was quite clear. We move forward.
“The fact that we didn’t play against City, we can have fresh legs against West Ham, it can be an advantage.
“The preparation for the game was good and we still have two days before the next game and I hope that we are ready.”
But while Guardiola appreciated the Italian’s candour, he took aim at Everton’s response to the situation when speaking to the media on Friday.
He said: “There are clubs making statements complaining when it (the postponement) is just thinking about health when a lot of people in the UK are dying every day.
“I prefer the statement from Carlo Ancelotti than the one from the club.
“We had enough players to play against Everton. We wanted to play.
“But the day of the game we had three more cases. The virus was inside our training centre.
“We informed the Premier League. What happened if the Everton players were infected from us? It was a huge risk.”
A rearranged date for City’s visit to Goodison is yet to be confirmed but Guardiola hopes he will come up against a full-strength Everton once it is.
“Hopefully when we go to Goodison, [Lucas] Digne, Richarlison, Allan, James [Rodriguez] can play and we will beat them,” added the Catalan.
“We would have loved to play the game but wisely the Premier League decided for the welfare of everyone not to increase the cases.”