Guardiola expecting slump but believes his men will ride it out

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola believes his side will endure a slump at some point but is optimistic they will come through it stronger than they did last season.

City have been in imperious form so far in this campaign and are unbeaten in all competitions, scoring more goals in the top-flight after eight games than any other club in more than a century.

They head into their clash with Burnley at the Etihad Stadium on the back of a 7-2 league victory over Stoke and a 2-1 win over Napoli in the Champions League.

Guardiola was effusive in his praise of those two displays; calling the former “the best performance” of his tenure at City and describing the latter as “perfect”.

A year ago, City made a similarly impressive start to the season as they chalked up 10 consecutive victories before a sharp downturn in form saw them lose three and draw three of their next six games.

City were never quite able to recapture that devastating form and ended the Premier League in third place – 15 points adrift of champions Chelsea.

Guardiola’s body language was circumspect when asked how his side might react to a blip given their scintillating start, but indicated he has seen enough in his players to suggest a positive response to any potential setback.

“That blip is going to happen, we are in October, we cannot expect to finish the season like we have done in the last month when we won all the games,” Guardiola said.

“It’s impossible in football in the high level, but I want to see that, I want to see how we are going to react in that moment we drop points, we will see how strong we are because teams always show in the bad moments.

“When everything is going well, winning 3-0 or 4-0, ok, it’s important but it doesn’t count for much.

“How you do in the bad moments is important. That is why I’m optimistic because the way we reacted at 3-2 against Stoke was so good.”

Guardiola played down suggestions that given the youthful vibrancy of his side they have the potential to dominate English football in future. Comparisons were made with the team he managed at Barcelona, but the Catalan emphasised City had achieved nothing yet.

“Firstly, to dominate before you had to win titles, and when you win you have to win the second one, the third one and the fourth one,” he said.

“And when that happens you can be considered dominant, but not one team has won a title in October. There’s no sense to talk about that.

“We can talk about Chelsea, who dominated last season, they won 13 or 15 games in a row, and how difficult that is to do in this country.

“Now we’re just in October, of course we are in good shape, in good momentum, but to say dominate you need titles, a lot. Not one, not two, a lot, and still we haven’t won one.”

Guardiola also hailed the “warrior” qualities of City centreback Nicolas Otamendi as a key factor behind his side’s superb start.

The Argentine defender made a shaky start to his City career after a £28.5m switch from Valencia in August 2015 but has started to justify his price tag.

“He has a warrior mentality, yes” Guardiola added. “He is one of the players with the strongest mentality that I met in my life.

“I said before that if he loses a game he says ‘Give me the ball again and let’s play,’ and I give a lot of value to this kind of thing.”

City striker Sergio Aguero is poised to return to the starting line-up against Burnley after being on the bench for their last two matches following his return from a broken rib.

Jack Wilshere can do what “mere mortals can only dream of” according to Martin Keown, after the midfielder’s performance for Arsenal against Red Star Belgrade on Thursday night. The 25-year-old started the move for Olivier Giroud’s winner in Serbia and made the crucial flick to Theo Walcott who headed to the Frenchman to bicycle-kick home.

And it was that contribution which prompted Keown to make the comments about Wilshere, despite him not playing a single Premier League game so far this season.

“It›s the brilliance of Wilshere, punching a hole in midfield, seeing what mere mortals can only dream of,” the former Arsenal defender told BT Sport. THE INDIEPENDENT