PRESSURE? I TAKE IT ALL IN MY STRIDE

Pep calm amid City’s great expectations

PEP GUARDIOLA insists he can handle the huge weight of expectation on him at Manchester City.

Guardiola knows he is expected to deliver success after the first barren campaign of his glorious career with City last season.

City’s hierarchy have given him their total backing by splashing out a club-record spend of £210million on new players and Guardiola cannot fail again.

The Blues boss is undaunted about working under such pressure and says he has had to deal with it for virtually all of his coaching career.

Guardiola said: “I said before it’s the same expectation as last season and the same expectation as always except for my first months in Barcelona, when nobody trusted in us. Nobody, especially after the first defeat in Numancia, who were newly promoted, like Brighton.

“Since then I have carried on in this situation. I can handle that. At Bayern, I won three Bundesligas in a row, two cups, reached three semi-finals of the Champions League. I felt that period in Munich, I know I can handle it.”

Guardiola pays little attention to the pundits who are tipping City for the title after the professional job they did on Brighton on the opening day. He handles criticism from outside the club in the same way and says his only concern is trying to beat Everton and his old Barcelona pal Ronald Koeman tonight at the Etihad Stadium. “When journalists say, ‘You are the favourite’, I accept that,” he said. “When we lose and they say, ‘You are not the favourite’, I accept it too. “Perhaps after 4-0 for Manchester United we are not as strong favourites. And when we lose one game, we are not definitely favourites. “We just have to try to win this game and then we’re going to see where we are at the end of the season. “If we win, people will say nice words. But if we don’t win, people will say he’s not able to train in the Premier League. It’s simple like that.” Fernandinho (above) claims the players are also used to dealing with the pressure to deliver trophies every season. “There’s always pressure here to win something,” said the Brazilian. “Since I came four years ago, the pressure is there.

“You always have to win. This year won’t be different.

“It would be perfect if we can win all the trophies. The most important thing is to be consistent during the whole season and at the end, try to be fighting for the title.”

Koeman handed Guardiola his heaviest league defeat as a coach when City lost 4-0 to Everton at Goodison in January and the Catalan is keen to show his side have learnt the painful lessons of that day.

“They arrived four times and scored four goals,” he said. “We were not solid defensively.

“We hope we can learn from that because we learn when we win and it’s the same when we lose.”