The Blues face Huddersfield Town in the Carabao Cup third round, having picked up two wins and a draw against Manchester United, Napoli and Arsenal in the past nine days.
Only a Gabriel Martinelli equaliser prevented City from taking maximum points in the latter of those fixtures, but Pep was full of praise for his players’ attitude in North London.
City’s 33.2% possession was the lowest of Guardiola’s top flight managerial career, but the boss instead pointed towards Arsenal’s threats rather than the Blues’ approach to the game.
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Indeed, Pep believes his players are moving closer to emulating the incredible standards that have been set in recent seasons.
The boss said: “What can I say? I’m really proud, satisfied, I don’t know the right word. We recovered many things that we missed last season. We have incredible spirit.
“Of course, we can’t sustain the way we played all season, we don’t want it, but I give incredible credit to the opponent, Arsenal.
“They’re able to do that to the opponent, I always want to learn to celebrate when we draw and the way we draw away to Arsenal, a Champions League semi-finalist, big contenders for the last seasons, I want to celebrate that point.
HUDDERSFIELD v CITY: MATCH PREVIEW
“Since I started my manager career in teams, I ask to give everything to the pitch and in some moments last season we didn’t do it. This season, especially since I would say the USA but also since against United we started to recover many things that defined our teams for many seasons.
“When this happened, I wouldn’t say I don’t care, it’s not the right word but I could not care less that fact we can do better. We will do it and can do some things better.
“We could make better decisions? Yeah, we do it. Play more with the ball? Yeah, we do it. But first comes the spirit that we’ve shown this week.
“We have to take care of these things like a father or mother takes care of their sons. It’s the only thing to be a stable team, step by step, when important injuries come back, we will learn to do better, and Gigi and James will settle better, the team will grow up.”
Hear Pep Guardiola’s thoughts in full via the video above...
Huddersfield v City App Coverage
As usual, the Official Man City App is the place to be on matchday for our League Cup tie with Huddersfield.
Two hours before kick-off, our regular text updates will begin in our Matchday Centre, continuing right across the evening until the final whistle.
Around 75 minutes prior to the game our Matchday Live show will start, with special guests Paul Dickov and Andy Morrison our special guests.
They’ll also be checking in regularly with Mike Minay and Karen Bardsley, who will be at the Joie Stadiu, commentating on our Subway League Cup clash with Everton, which is available to watch live on CITY+ from 19:00 (UK).
Once our Carabao Cup game gets underway, blow-by-blow text updates will continue in our Matchday Centre, while those with push notifications turned on will also be alerted to all the key moments as they unfold.
From midnight, highlights will be available when signing in, with a full-match replay and 20-minute review of the game also available on CITY+.
