Guardiola says no January signings for Manchester City
Champions Manchester City will aim to cut Liverpool’s lead back to four points as they resume their title chase by hosting Wolves today.
Pep Guardiola’s men pulled themselves firmly back into the race for top spot in the Premier League with thrilling victory over Jurgen Klopp’s men earlier this month.
Since then they have dished out two morale-boosting domestic cup thrashings to lower division teams – beating Rotherham and Burton Albion by a combined score of 16-0 – but Liverpool have been the first back into league action.
The Merseysiders pushed their advantage out to seven points with a 1-0 victory at Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday and the onus is now on City to maintain their pursuit.
Guardiola has been asked numerous times if City might try to add to the squad during this month’s transfer window but he remains adamant that will not happen.
He said: “Sometimes we have done it but normally when we want to buy a player it’s for the next four, five six years and normally these kind of situations don’t happen in this transfer window.
“For loan players maybe it can happen, for a short time, but I don’t think the big clubs buy players for just six months and important players are not sold in that period.
“If you have no injuries and you are satisfied, as in our case, with the squad we have, we decided going well, going bad, [we stick] with the same players we started the season.”
Striker Sergio Aguero could return for Wolves’ visit to the Etihad Stadium after a bout of illness while captain Vincent Kompany has also made good progress after suffering a muscular problem in the Liverpool game.
Nuno Espirito Santo has told Wolves to forget about Manchester City’s megastars and focus on themselves.
Wolves held the defending Premier League champions to a 1-1 draw at Molineux in August and Nuno insisted his side cannot get caught up on who they are playing.
He said: “It’s not about who you face, it’s about what you want to put on the pitch, your idea, the way you want to develop. It’s how you want to grow and how you want to do things on the pitch, that’s the philosophy we try.
“It’s about the approach. For us, we want to grow, build and be ready to compete, we must not change our way.
“I know the reality of the game, the reality of football. You have to be prepared for everything, consistency is very hard to achieve through the season.
“They are a very good team, one of the best in the world, so there’s no doubt on Monday they’re going to be as good as they always are.”
Wolves beat Liverpool in the FA Cup last Monday and also dispatched Chelsea at home last month.
And Nuno, who has no fitness worries for the game, admitted Wolves are full of confidence after beating Liverpool.
He added: “It was very important, no doubt about it. I think it was a moment of joy, we did a good performance against a very tough team and we achieved what we wanted, which was to go to the next round.
“The FA Cup is there, we let it be and we prepare for the next big challenge on Monday.”