Guardiola’s City only finished the last campaign two months ago, the Treble achieved on that glorious night in Istanbul on 10 June.
In fact, tonight’s opponents Burnley returned to training for this new season before the sky blues had finished the last season.
Guardiola was thrilled to pick up a 3-0 win at Turf Moor and believes a strong attitude and approach, like the one on show this evening, is the key weapon to countering the shorter preparation time for his squad.
“We are still away from our best form but we have to try to not drop points in this period with this amount of games,” the manager told waiting media after the win over the Clarets.
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“How you solve this lack of preparation is a question of mentality.
“We were fortunate to break the game early with the goals from Erling. But after we created problems for ourselves, against man to man that was not correct.
“There was a moment after 30-35 minutes when Julian, Bernardo, Mateo, Phil dropped and we attacked with full backs on the outside and made a lot of passes.
“In the second half we were perfect trying to isolate Erling 1 on 1.
“The first game away against a newly-promoted team with the passion and love they have to be back in the Premier League, always it’s so tricky.
“We behaved exemplary. We gave away the ball in different positions but they showed the heart and passion.”
Watch the manager’s post-match press conference in the video player above.
