Once-bitten Guardiola wary of Everton threat

LONDON: The Premier League title credentials of Pep Guardiola’s new-look Manchester City face an early-season examination on Tuesday when Ronald Koeman’s ambitious Everton visit the Etihad Stadium.

With around £150 million ($193.1 million, 164.1 million euros) of new players on show, City made an assured start to the campaign by winning 2-0 at promoted Brighton and Hove Albion last weekend.

But Everton are also stronger, taking their spending past £130 million this week with a clubrecord £45 million move for Gylfi Sigurdsson, and they trounced City 4-0 when the teams last met in January.

“They are a top squad and they have important players,” said Guardiola, the City manager.

“They lost an important player, (Romelu) Lukaku, but they have a good group of players -- midfield players and strikers. They are one of the best teams in the Premier League, I am pretty sure of that.

“I expect they will play the same way and attack our defence.

“Sandro Ramirez and Wayne Rooney are used to playing in that way. They have a strong defence. They have great players and are dangerous on the counterattack.”

City’s 4-0 defeat at Goodison Park in January was the low point of Guardiola’s maiden campaign in England, which ended with his side 15 points adrift of champions Chelsea in third place.

The visitors had 71 percent of possession and registered 13 attempts on goal to Everton’s six, but they were wasteful in attack and alarmingly porous in defence.

Of the goalkeeper and four defenders who started at Goodison, only centre-backs Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones are expected to be involved on Monday.

Guardiola has used a threeman defence in pre-season and at Brighton, with captain Vincent Kompany bringing much-needed authority at the back and new boys Kyle Walker and Danilo supplying thrust on the flanks.

City’s third new full-back, Benjamin Mendy, is not yet ready to make his debut due to a thigh injury.

But he is back in training, along with long-term injury victim Ilkay Gundogan, and both players are expected to return to action soon.

While Guardiola prioritised signing full-backs over the close season, his former Barcelona team-mate Koeman has apparently been on a mission to cram as many number 10s into his squad as possible.

Sigurdsson and his fellow new signings Davy Klaassen and Wayne Rooney all tend to play in central attacking roles and Ross Barkley also remains on Everton’s books for the time being. - AFP