Nobody wins league in October – Guardiola
PEP GUARDIOLA has warned his Manchester City players they will run into trouble but the manager is convinced his free-scoring side are better equipped to cope with a setback than last season.
City claimed their 10th successive win with a 2-1 victory over Napoli in the Champions League on Tuesday and face Burnley at the Etihad Stadium this afternoon, a week on from thrashing Stoke City 7-2 to take their goals tally to 29 in eight league outings.
It was after a run of 10 consecutive victories last term that the wheels began to fall off, with City failing to win any of their next six matches and going on to finish the campaign empty-handed.
But while the Catalan anticipates problems at some point, he also believes there is greater resilience and quality in his team this time.
“That (a blip) is going to happen,” Guardiola said. “We are in October and we cannot expect to finish the season like we have done in the last month, when we won all the games, it’s impossible in football at the high level.
“But 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 [their character] in the bad moments. When everything is going well, 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 when Stoke came back to 3-2 (from 3-0 down) was so good. After 3-2, one minute later, Kevin (De Bruyne) had a chance to score the fourth and after he gave the assist to Gabriel (Jesus) for the fourth. If you want to become a strong team you have to react in a bad moment immediately but we know about that.”
Guardiola believes it is futile to discuss the prospect of City dominating English football when they have yet to win the title under him. “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. “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.
“Of course we are in good shape, in good momentum, but to say dominate you need a lot of titles. Not one, not two, a lot and still we haven’t won one.”
Sergio Aguero could return to the starting XI against Burnley after being an unused substitute against Stoke and Napoli following his return from the fractured rib suffered in a car crash in Amsterdam last month. But Vincent Kompany remains sidelined as concerns grow over the extent of the calf injury that has now kept him out for more than six weeks.
“He is not ready, not yet,” Guardiola said. When pressed on whether he had an idea of when the Belgian would be available again, the City manager replied: “No.” (© Daily Telegraph, London)