Spiky Pep Guardiola snaps back at question over Kyle Walker and Neal Maupay bust-up

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola snapped at a reporter when asked about Kyle Walker’s skirmish with Brentford’s Neal Maupay.

The pair became embroiled in a war of words in the closing stages of Manchester City’s 3-1 win on Monday which saw a furious Walker speaking to referee Jarred Gillett.

The official spoke to both players after Guardiola had attempted to keep the England international calm.

The reasoning behind the clash was unclear and when quizzed on the incident in his post-match press conference, Guardiola snapped back.

“Nothing, next question!” the Manchester City boss replied. When pressed on whether the officials were conducting a further investigation, a spiky Guardiola responded: “I said next question”.

Meanwhile, Brentford boss Thomas Frank claimed to know nothing about the exchange. When asked his understanding of the clash, he said: “No, I saw they were talking to each other. It's not my first focus after a game that we lost.”

Maupay’s clash with Walker is the second high-profile incident involving the Frenchman in the last week.

It comes after an encounter with James Maddison during Brentford’s 3-2 defeat at Tottenham.

Maupay cheekily copied Maddison's darts-throwing celebration after opening the scoring at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium which saw Maddison hit back at the striker in a post-match interview.

"I just said to him [Maupay] he probably hasn't scored enough goals of his own over the last few years to have his own celebration so you probably have to copy mine,” Maddison said. “A short story - it ended well for us."

The Brentford star was in no mood to let it lie and hit back at the 27-year-old on social media. He wrote: "Went a bit early with that one. Gutted we couldn’t get the win. More goals and less relegations in my career than James Maddison. We go again Monday Bees."

Despite the controversy, Maupay remains in good goal scoring form having netted in each of his last three Premier League outings.

He will be hoping to continue his good form when struggling Brentford travel to Wolves on Saturday.