By Ian Whittell

Pep Guardiola insists he would unleash another “happy flowers” rant if Manchester City show complacency again as he prepares to take on Tottenham this afternoon.

The Manchester City manager famously used the odd phrase in the corresponding fixture in January when his side had come back from a two-goal first-half deficit to beat Spurs 4-2.

Guardiola accused his stars, and City in general, of complacency, ranting that he did not want to be part of a “happy flowers team.”

The outburst worked, with City losing just one more league game – coincidentally at Spurs – before they captured the title and it is a tactic Guardiola would use again.

“I will do those things whether they want to hear it or not hear it,” Guardiola said. “Listen, in my time here if you can say how many good things I’ve said to them publicly and privately, it’s a thousand times – much, much more than the negative things I can say.

“I was being incredibly honest and felt that so said it. Maybe because we won – if we had lost I might not have said it.

“But we won and the people accepted everything and that was my feeling at that moment. It was not copy and paste. It’s not okay, now in November and December when I say something when the book is already written then, No. I felt it and wrote it.”

“Happy flowers” may have been one of the more memorable sound bites of City’s season and Guardiola admits it was a calculated gamble that might have back-fired.

Instead, his players responded superbly to clinch just the second treble in English football history.

“It was just something that came in the ‘flash’ interview at that moment after the game,” he said. “Even if it is not really an English saying, they got it, they understood immediately and that was the point.

“We won so we could believe it but it could have turned out completely differently. Not every action you do is going to impact. You believe in the moment.

“I said it publicly and privately and that’s all. We won so it was ‘how brilliant was Pep?’ so we could do it again and it might not have worked. But we had that won and that feeling ‘oh we’re playing good, it’s nice.’

“It is a manager’s job to say what really really happens, if you don’t like to listen, it’s your problem. We have to do it. Put in front of mirror every single time.

“For example, we conceded four goals against Chelsea – two avoidable goals. We have a problem. We have a problem. You could say it doesn’t matter, but if we don’t solve it we will lose games. If we want to win games we have to solve it.”

Coincidentally, City take on Spurs after a similar midweek showing to the one that provoked Guardiola’s anger in January. On Tuesday, his side trailed RB Leipzig 2-0 at home, before recovering to win the Champions League group game, although the City manager insisted it was a very different performance to the Spurs win last season.

“I don’t think we played badly in the first half. Yes, we lost some balls that were maybe avoidable and the goals we conceded, one against one on the keeper, so something wrong happened,” he said.

“But we still created more chances than them, we played quite decent. At half time I said ‘we are going to finish second in the group stage if we don’t make a comeback so we need to be patient.’

“We didn’t give up, and that is top, that’s the thing. But the guys who played, I didn’t have the feeling that they’re thinking ‘okay we are top of the group.’ Maybe I am wrong but I didn’t have it.”

Guardiola, meanwhile, resisted the temptation to offer another neat sound bite, when asked how he would describe his current squad.

“Let me think,” he said. “Tomorrow after the game I will say. I don’t know where we are right now.”