Pep plays down the talk of City quadruple

AFTER accumulating 21 trophies in seven years at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, the first one in English football cannot come soon enough for Pep Guardiola. A first, barren season of a gilded coaching career was not the way he wanted to start out at Manchester City, but now the Spaniard is on course for an unprecedented Quadruple. Guardiola maintains that winning four major trophies is ‘an illusion’ and that emulating Arsenal’s Invincibles in the Premier League will be impossible. But with each passing week, the belief among their supporters continues to grow and the same appears to be happening on the training ground. City youngster Oleksandr Zinchenko claimed that the Quadruple is what Guardiola’s side ‘think about every single day and every training session’, Burnley captain and a graduate of City’s academy, Ben Mee also believes it is a possibility for his old club. ‘Anyone can do all four trophies and it depends how they go on now,’ he added. ‘They are looking good at the minute and it’s going to take a good team to stop them, that’s for sure.’ City despatched Burnley from the FA Cup third round then started preparing for the first leg of a Carabao Cup semifinal tomorrow night against Bristol City, conquerors of Manchester United. The games will come thick and fast now for the runaway Premier League leaders who, not surprisingly, are among the favourites for the Champions League as well. Guardiola knows from experience just how important it will be to lift that first trophy, and if it happens to be the Carabao Cup at Wembley next month then all the better. ‘So important,’ he said. ‘Winning helps to win more. To become a big club like United or Liverpool, with their history, you have to win. ‘We have to lift titles in the future. Without them, it’s not enough. But nobody can take away what we’ve done so far. The pleasure we’ve had so far over three or four months belongs to us. ‘From my experience in Barcelona, when we won the Treble, in January you cannot talk about it. It’s unrealistic. ‘In sport, the most important thing is what’s next. Visualise, focus on what’s next. If you look far away, big mistake.’ City weren’t at their best in the first half against Burnley who contained their attacking threat comfortably and took the lead after Ashley Barnes capitalised on an error by John Stones. But Guardiola’s side struck back as Ilkay Gundogan set up Sergio Aguero for two goals in the space of 93 seconds. The first, a quicklytaken free kick while Ashley Westwood was still taking up his position after talking to referee Graham Scott, upset manager Sean Dyche who clashed with Guardiola on the touchline. Mee added: ‘We’re disappointed by it. They are sharp players and you’d like to think we would see that (the quick take). ‘But one of our players was ushered away from the ball and possibly told the whistle was being blown, and waiting for the whistle.’