CITY SPECIAL Pep sends out a message to his top stars
PEP Guardiola’s team selection at Arsenal rammed home a vital message to his buoyant City stars.
The Blues boss has made it plain the players who drove their recordbreaking title season are not safe, as they seek to become the first team for 10 years to successfully defend the Premier League crown.
Guardiola underlined the message by picking a team at Arsenal which placed faith in four players who last season would not have been in his strongest team.
John Stones and Aymeric Laporte were definitely third and fourth choices when the title race got intense last season.
Bernardo Silva’s late arrival after international duty contributed to him being a marginal figure at first, although his influence grew steadily throughout the campaign.
And Ilkay Gundogan, partly through his injury woes and partly through the magnificent form of David Silva and Kevin de Bruyne, has not tied down a place.
But with all of his stars available, Guardiola left De Bruyne on the bench and allowed David Silva to stay in Manchester.
Perhaps the City manager’s true assessment of Arsenal was revealed by the intimation that ‘Merlin’ could have played had it been deemed necessary.
More likely is that Guardiola felt that Bernardo’s brilliant displays against Bayern Munich in Miami, and Chelsea at Wembley, meant that his namesake is no longer indispensable.
You can bet that David Silva watched on telly as Bernardo bossed the Gunners, and realised he has a big fight on his hands this season.
Bernardo is no longer simply the right-sided midfielder who stretches defences by hugging the touchline, and drifts in to add another talented body to the attacking numbers. He has shown why Guardiola predicted that David Silva, who turns 33 in January, will not play as many games this season. The brilliant Spaniard, who has just had his best season, will not take that lying down – and that is precisely what Guardiola wants. Vincent Kompany and Nicolas Otamendi will also not be overjoyed that, amid all the excitement of the Premier League opening day, in a fabulous stadium against illustrious opposition, they were watching from the bench. Of course, Laporte has been in training since day one, while Stones’ early return from holiday, and his performance against Chelsea, impressed the boss. Beating both Chelsea and Arsenal without De Bruyne and Silva – arguably their two premium stars from last season – sent out a clear message. “It’s the only way to be consistent,” said Guardiola when M.E.N. Sport asked him about that message afterwards. “The players have to know that