QUALITY IS THE BENCHMARK

Guardiola warns his stars they must prove themselves continually.. if they don’t want to end up as subs

PEP GUARDIOLA has warned his players not to rely on past glories for a place in his starting XI – insisting those sitting on the bench are there for a reason.

Burnley provided their usual boost to Manchester City’s fortunes with a fourth straight home 5- 0 victory over the Clarets for Guardiola’s men.

But after a start to the season which has been underwhelming, both in terms of points and goals, the City boss still fired a warning shot at individuals he believes have taken their foot off the gas.

A question to Guardiola about resting and rotating his squad, in order to protect players, produced a surprisingly spiky response.

“It is not about rest here,” he said. “I saw that Kevin De Bruyne was a little bit exhausted mentally, and so he missed the trip to Olympiakos.

“But, right now,

I see the players who are in a better condition or more focused.

“If the players think they have been rested because I am rotating, they have made a big mistake.

“I put the best players in every game, sometimes for the benefit of the team, sometimes because of injuries, but especially the players who play well.

“If players believe, ‘I deserve to start because I have been here for three or four years’, they have made a big mistake.

“It doesn’t matter if you win a lot of titles in the past or you score a lot of goals, you have to show it on the pitch, in the recent past, in the present, and especially in the future.”

Raheem Sterling, Aymeric Laporte and Bernardo Silva might all wonder whether the broadside was aimed in their direction.

More likely is that Guardiola – refreshed and refocused after signing a new deal – is just rattling a few cages after a sloppy start to their campaign.

Sterling, Silva, Fernandinho, Joao Cancelo, Phil Foden, Eric Garcia and Zack Steffen all began the game on the bench. Fernandinho, Foden and Garcia were all used in a match where City were beyond reproach, up against a Burnley side who did not do too much wrong beyond le t t ing Guardiola’s men out of the blocks fast enough that their pre-match plan was ripped up.

Two clinical finishes from Riyad Mahrez (above), and a superb volleyed finish from Benjamin Mendy, saw City out of sight at the break. Goals from Ferran Torres and a third from Mahrez, assisted expertly by Gabriel Jesus and Foden, delivered comprehensive victory against a side who have now scored just one goal to City’s 28 in their last seven meetings.

Negatives were few and far between for Guardiola, who insisted even the absence of Sergio Aguero, after suffering a slight reaction in his knee following last Wednesday’s victory over Olympiakos, was dismissed.

The striker is expected back in training this week, but is unlikely to make the trip to Portugal for the Champions League clash with Porto tomorrow.