Pep Guardiola Insists He and His Players Celebrated Normally Following 'Disrespect' Claims

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has spoken out about the alleged fracas that occurred after the Manchester Derby on Sunday, insisting he and his players did not 'over-celebrate'.

The Citizens stand accused by Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho of celebrating wildly following the visitors' huge 2-1 win, who apparently stormed their dressing room to demand they showed respect and humility.

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The story goes that that led to City goalkeeper Ederson throwing milk and water over the Portuguese, before United's players piled through the corridor to try and get to the Citizens, bloodying Mikel Arteta in the process.

Guardiola, speaking ahead of his side's next Premier League match with Swansea, thinks his players behaved normally in the moment though.

He said, as quoted by the BBC: "I am the guy who encouraged each other to celebrate. It was the same after the Southampton game. That was 96 minutes or something like that, but we were happy. It was a derby, it was the closest rival."

And he added via Sammy Lee on Twitter: "We try to celebrate, because when we lose we try to accept the defeat, but when we win we celebrate. We celebrate in the right moments, for example we celebrated in Napoli, you have to do that, but inside [the dressing room]."

City moved 11 points clear at the top of the league with victory at Old Trafford, and can reach 49 points from a possible 51 with a win at the Liberty Stadium on Wednesday.