DATE FIGHT

months! That’s why we’re in the top four. Jurgen needs to see the calendar again. When I see him I will tell him how many days we had off.

“I didn’t expect that from Jurgen. I thought he wasn’t that type of manager.

“If he sees the calendar, he will see it was not two weeks.

“We had Covid. One week we played with 14 players at Stamford Bridge.

“He knows it’s not true. Nobody in the Premier League has had two weeks off.”

Guardiola also accused Klopp of overlooking the fact City had a much shorter pre-season than Liverpool and told the moaners to stop whingeing and get on with it.

He added: “Of course he forgot it. We didn’t forget it but they [Liverpool] did of course.

“It was a challenge but I never thought it was easy in this world, so we cannot complain when people are suffering much more than us.

“People say it’s freezing in the game. It’s not freezing. Freezing is when people are suffering. We are incredibly lucky and fortunate.

“When it’s happened, it’s happened. When you have a lot of Covid cases in the beginning and injuries, when we had Covid before the Everton game, we said, ‘It is what it is’.

“We had 14 players – it happened to us, Newcastle, Atletico Madrid, it happened to all the clubs around the world because everything changed.

“Don’t look back, say, ‘What’s next, how many players do we have?’ and prepare for the game. We do it and if we win, we will continue. If we lose, we will continue. It’s the only way and I’ve done it throughout my career.”