GUARDIOLA PLAYS DOWN WALKER INCIDENT

PEP GUARDIOLA has not felt the need to remind Kyle Walker of his responsibilities after the Manchester City defender was alleged to have exposed himself at a bar earlier this week. Cheshire Police are investigating the incident after CCTV footage allegedly showed Walker, 32, dropping his trousers in public during an evening out in Wilmslow on Sunday. Guardiola confirmed that he considers Walker available for selection at Crystal Palace today and told his players they should be conscious of being filmed in public.

‘I spoke with him but I don’t have to remind him,’ Guardiola said. ‘We are adults. I’m not a father. I’m a friend of his. I concede after seven years I know in the past many things happen — he and everyone can count on me on the personal issues. Everyone. ‘When we are here inside I like to feel they can count on us in the good and bad moments.

‘When you open the door at home, you have to know that you will be filmed. It’s part of society.

‘I never was involved in the private issues. Everybody knows that the only place I think you are safe is inside, at home — lock the door. The moment you unlock the door you are exposed. ‘It’s completely different from 15 or 20 years ago. ‘There are cameras and phones everywhere. We’d prefer not to live in that way but it is what it is. ‘Everybody knows it — our job, the media attention.’ Guardiola will hope that Walker — who is married and a father of four children — does not prove a distraction for City as they attempt to haul back Arsenal in the Premier League title race.

‘We have a lot of games, that’s why you have to be ready,’ he added.