Pep Guardiola hailed Manchester City’s best performance in months after seeing his team destroy West Ham United 5-0 in the FA Cup third round on Friday night. City dominated the game and created plenty of chances, leading Guardiola to say that his team were finally playing the football he expected from them again, just as they did at the start of the season.

“Finally today we could recover what we expected and what we tried for in the first part of the season,” Guardiola said afterwards. “We did it many, many games. But in the last month, two months, for different circumstances, we were not able to do that. In the last month and a half, two months, we were not able to make narrow passes. Our game was unpredictable, I the ball was always up and down, up and down. But today we controlled a bit more, through the passes.”

Guardiola played a narrow 4-4-2 diamond system to try to dominate the middle, with Pablo Zabaleta drafted again into a midfield role. Guardiola said that helped City to control possession and he singled out the veteran Argentine for praise afterwards.

“We had one or two more players in the middle,” said Guardiola, explaining City’s improvement. “It is not possible to play with the ball if you don't have one or two players in midfield positions to repeat the pass. To break the defence and midfield lines you have to create a lot of passes between each other. Zabaleta can play there perfectly. Because he's a fighter, he helps us a lot in the middle, he's a guy who arrives at the right tempo. Like when he played there against Celtic, he made a really good performance.”

Guardiola has admitted that he did not enjoy City’s away wins at Burnley and Crystal Palace because they did not play as he would like. Here, though, he said that City were back to play his style of football, which is the only way that this group of players can be successful.

“We cannot achieve our targets if we don't start to play again,” Guardiola said. “If we want to play long ball, long ball, we cannot do absolutely anything. As much as possible we have to have the ball, we have to play.“

For Guardiola, the advantage in physical power that Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham enjoy over City means that possession is the only way that City can compete at the very top.

”Hopefully we can start again to play in this way,” he said. “It's the only way, in this kind of team. We are not strong enough as the other ones. We are not fast enough, like the other ones. We have to try to play with the ball, as much as possible, to win the games. If not, all the other contenders are stronger than us.”

Guardiola confirmed that City are looking for a short-term solution at centre-back in the January transfer window amid reports that they want to sign Holger Badstuber from Germany on loan.

“Now we arrive in the Premier League, the FA Cup, Champions League, and something happens with the injuries, we don't have enough [at centre-back],” Guardiola said. “We are evaluating if there is a chance, a possibility, to take one. I know Holger, he's a fantastic player, a fantastic guy, but he's a Bayern Munich player. There are no names on the table. Now we have time with Txiki, with the club, to discuss what is the best until the end of the season.”