Guardiola’s challenge to put City up with greats

Pep Guardiola says Manchester City will not become a truly big club like Manchester United and Liverpool until they deliver more trophies.

But the City manager has warned his players they will be making a “big mistake” if they start to entertain talk of an unprecedented quadruple at this stage of the season.

City face Bristol City in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final at the Etihad Stadium tomorrow evening having maintained their fight on four fronts on Saturday by coming from behind against Burnley to claim an ultimately emphatic victory.

Ashley Barnes put Burnley in front in the first half with a thunderous strike after capitalising on a mistake by John Stones but two goals in the space of 94 seconds from Sergio Aguero, both of which originated from inspired passes from Ilkay Gundogan, led the fightback. The third and fourth goals were also beautifully crafted, with Sane and substitute Bernardo Silva applying the finishes.

City have not lost a domestic match since April 23 last year and makeshift defender Oleksandr Zinchenko claimed the players think about sweeping the board “every single day and every training session” and was adamant City “can win everything, and that’s why we are here”.

But Guardiola has urged caution and also suggested City – Premier League winners in 2012 and 2014 – would not join United and Liverpool among England’s biggest clubs until silverware had become a regular fixture.

Asked about the importance of winning the League Cup, Guardiola said: “So important – a win helps to win more. To become a big club like the teams I’ve faced, or United or Liverpool with their history, you have to win.

“It is nice to have good performances but you have to lift the titles. It’s important and we’re going to try.

“Nobody can take away what we’ve done so far. But I think it’s a big mistake just to be happy if you win [like now]. We have to lift titles in the future – without them it’s not enough.”

For now, though, Guardiola does not want his players to get ahead of themselves and told them instead to focus all their efforts on Bristol City and Liverpool on Sunday. “From my experience in Barcelona when we won the triple, in January you cannot talk about it, it’s unrealistic,” he said.

“In sport, the most important thing is what’s next – visualise, focus on what’s next. If you look far away, it’s a big mistake.” League titles 20 18 4 FA Cup wins 12 7 5

Sane’s goal was his ninth of an impressive campaign but his first in 13 games and Guardiola has sought to keep the Germany winger’s feet on the ground by warning him that he is still making “big mistakes” that he must address.

“I said to him many times I don’t have doubts how important he is for us because he makes runs in be-