City booked our place in the FA Cup final on Saturday with a 3-0 win over Sheffield United - only three days after securing passage into the UEFA Champions League last four with a 1-1 draw away at Bayern Munich.
Elsewhere, we’re only five points behind Arsenal with two games in hand ahead of our meeting with Mikel Arteta’s side on Wednesday 26 April at the Etihad Stadium.
The boss is more than aware of the challenge physically and mentally for his players as we battle in this trio of competitions.
He made six changes to his line-up for the Blades semi-final as he continues to assess the condition of his stars during this hectic schedule.
On his weekend team sheet, he said: “I said [to the players] that I didn’t give you rest because the FA Cup is not important.
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“It is not about that. I saw them tired.
“Rodri, I spoke with my staff and said I cannot play [him], I am devastated. So when that happens, you don’t play.
“I had the [same] feeling for John and some of the other ones.
“I spoke with Gundo and he said ‘no I feel fresh, I feel okay’. That’s why it was the line-up.
“But against Burnley for example at home, we played strong. Kevin played and Erling and Julian and Jack because in these types of game if you make substitutions from my experience, you drop too much.”
On what’s to come, he added: “What’s important is we go game by game, everyone is fit. We don’t have injuries.
“Phil [Foden] is back, we can rely on Sergio [Gomez] and Stefan [Ortega Moreno]. Everyone is going to do their contribution.
“In the locker room, the people were incredibly happy. Satisfied. A final is a final. The FA Cup final is the FA Cup final. We’ll keep going and moving forward.”
Watch Guardiola‘s full press conference in the video above!
