Pep Guardiola Talks About Manchester City’s Unbeaten Start and Upcoming Challenges

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is not overly focused on his team’s unbeaten start to the Premier League 2024/25 season. Despite winning their first four matches, including a 2-1 victory over Brentford, Guardiola acknowledges that they will eventually drop points.

Guardiola said, “It’s important we don’t drop points, it’s a good lesson. We were lucky with the deflection Erling scored. The players know it. That’s why, at halftime, I didn’t say anything.” He added, “There will be a lot of surprises with this number of games, and one day we are going to drop points. With a really tough game, we survived, and with our mentality, we adjusted. We did really well with our process to find the right moments.”

Manchester City will begin their UEFA Champions League campaign against Inter Milan on Wednesday night. Unlike the previous season, teams will compete in a different format, the UEFA Champions League format. A total of 36 clubs from Europe’s premier football leagues will compete in a league phase, which replaces the traditional group stage. Each team will play eight matches against eight different opponents, with an equal split of home and away fixtures. Every match’s outcome will significantly impact the league table standings. The top eight teams will automatically advance to the UCL round of 16.

While giving his take on the new format, Guardiola said, “[I’ve] no opinion. They decide to do this. UEFA decides this. We want to be there, so we will play that format. [There are] more games, but it is what it is. What can we do? On Wednesday, we play the best team in Italy, and then on Sunday, we play the best contender of the last two seasons.” He concluded, “Then Tuesday another game. We have an academy. We have to adapt. I like to play Champions League, so we are going to play.”