Now at Brighton, Milner’s substitute appearance against Brentford saw him take to a Premier League pitch for the 654th time.
That saw him overtake his former City team-mate Gareth Barry, who previously held the record.
Speaking after City’s game with Newcastle on the same day, Guardiola congratulated our former midfielder.
“I want to say on behalf of Manchester City, a big congratulations to James Milner who today made an incredible landmark,” he began.
“Hats off. It’s his consistency and love for the game. What he has done is unbelievable. Congratulations to James.”
Both Milner and Barry were a key part of our title-winning team in 2011/12, as well as lifting the FA Cup in the previous campaign.
Milner represented City 147 times in the Premier League across five seasons between 2010 and 2015, after spells at Leeds United, Newcastle United and Aston Villa and before moving on to Liverpool and Brighton.
Despite setting the appearance record, Milner remains almost 14,000 minutes behind Barry in terms of time spent on a Premier League pitch.
Several other former City players feature high up when it comes to most Premier League appearances, with Frank Lampard fourth on 609 games and David James fifth with 572 outings.
James is second behind Barry for minutes played with the goalkeeper spending 51,299 minutes on a Premier League pitch and Barry’s record standing at 54,439 minutes.
