Guardiola makes his case for the defence

PEP GUARDIOLA’S transformation from the king of tiki-taka to defensive master will be complete if Manchester City keep a club-record seventh consecutive Premier League clean sheet against Southampton today.

City have conceded only three goals in 10 league matches this season. In Guardiola’s debut campaign they let in 39.

But the Etihad boss vehemently denies Gary Neville’s claim that his men set out to illegally stop opponents’ quick counter-attacks.

‘I’m not disclosing a secret when I say that when the opponent has the ball, we’re going to push them, press them to regain the ball, to attack more,’ he said.

‘Sometimes they dribble, you arrive late and you’re down and make a foul. So, yeah, it happens — I’m not saying we don’t make fouls.

‘But the intention to do something (deliberately), no. I can assure you, never in my life did I say to my players you have to do that to make problems to the opponents.’

John Stones and Aymeric Laporte, both 24, have wrested the centrehalf starting positions from Vincent Kompany and Nicolas Otamendi, although Guardiola believes it is the strength of his squad which keeps the first XI on their toes.

‘The best competition is not the opponents but the men beside you,’ he said. ‘One of the secrets of being consistent for more than one season is all the players feeling: “Wow, I have to play good” because the other ones are so good.’

Perhaps Guardiola’s most impressive achievement is getting players such as Sergio Aguero to buy into the philosophy of defending from the front.

‘In the big teams you need strikers with big quality who score goals but also fight,’ he said.