The Frenchman recently returned from a long-term knee injury and made three appearances in the space of eight days.
His brief cameo away at Shakhtar was his first taste of action in five months, and that was quickly followed by 45 minutes against Watford and half an hour in the Carabao Cup win at Preston.
He has looked excellent so far but faces competition from both Oleksandr Zinchenko and Angelino for a left-back berth, a situation replicated right across every position in the City squad, which is hailed by many as one of the strongest in Europe.
Mendy says the depth of options we have is a positive but admits he doesn’t envy Guardiola having to pick a side from such an illustrious squad of players.
“We know this team has players in all the positions,” he said.
“It’s not easy for the staff and the manager sometimes to say, “this guy plays”. All the players deserve to play, but we know how we need to work in training and after all the players respect the manager’s choice and we know he puts the best team on the pitch at the weekend.
“All our players work hard to be the best team.”
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City’s bid to win a third consecutive Premier League title continues today as we travel to Goodsion Park to face Everton.
Marco Silva’s side have had a difficult start to the season and currently sit 14th in the table - but having brought in seven players during a summer shakeup are widely considered to be a team capable of disrupting the established top six.
Guardiola warned about their quality in his pre-match press conference – and those sentiments have been echoed by Mendy.
“Everton is a strong team in England,” he said. “They have good players, we know them, and playing away also is not easy.
“It is not easy to play there but we’ll give everything to do what we need to do.
“When we go there, we want to put on a show, to play how we play all the time, to keep going the same way.
“If we are focused and every player gives his all for the team, we can get the result.”
City go into today’s game five points adrift of early pace setters Liverpool, who have taken maximum points from their opening six matches.
Many see this season’s title race being between City and Liverpool, just like last season’s, which saw Liverpool set a new record points tally for a team finishing second.
Mendy says the team remain focused on making sure we get to the end of the season without regrets and believes the quality of the Premier League means it will be another tense and dramatic race for the title.
“We are five points behind now, but we still have a lot of games until the season is over,” Mendy said.
“We are focused on us, we try to play as the manager says so that at the end of the season we don’t have regrets, we do everything and we follow his rules.
“We listen to what the staff say about how we’re working, after that, we can say nothing but congratulations to the opponent.
“The Premier League is one of the best for this [strong competition]. You have a lot of teams with a lot of quality, and each team pushes the others to be better.
“Liverpool is very strong team with good players, so it’s nice to have this in this league and it’s what we like. It will be a very good league this year again.”
City host Dinamo Zagreb just three days after our game against Everton as our Champions League campaign continues.
City made a superb start to Group C, beating Shakhatr Donetsk 3-0 in our first game.
Mendy admits the Champions League is a priority this season, but says City’s focus right now is on our Premier League assignment at Everton.
“Every team wants to win this cup, but we are focused on every game,” he said.
“We want to win and when we kick-off we play to win the game, so Everton first tomorrow and after we work on Dinamo.”
UEFA Champions League: Group Stage tickets
Buy Man City tickets for this season’s UEFA Champions League Group Stage against Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb and Atalanta.
Three game bundles available to previous purchasers from £45 for 18-21s and £52.50 for Adults.
