Guardiola is proud to have led City to the Premier League crown this season – our third in a row and fifth in six years - but he insists that honour counts for little heading into the all-Manchester clash at Wembley.
The boss says that this showpiece won’t be decided by what’s been won in the past and called on his team to perform to their optimum.
“It’s a football game and in a final it’s how you will be in that moment. Over the 90 minutes,” Guardiola told journalists at a news conference on Friday.
“It’s not what you have done in the past. It’s about how good you are or how not good you are.
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“It’s about how you perform individually, as a team, and all the details over this 90, 95 minutes. A final is that.
“It’s not important what you have done in the past or years ago, it’s just one game.
“We have to be the best version of ourselves to beat them.
“It should be good for us if we think about what we need to do to win one more game. Not like a title or finishing second or third, fourth or fifth.
“To analyse the strength of the opponent and how we believe the weaknesses they have and try to do it.
“It’s a football game, that is the most important thing. Surrounding it, outside, it’s normal, we can’t control it.
“The last two games of the season, we have to do what we have to do on the pitch to win.”
Ahead of the 15:00 (UK) date in the capital, Guardiola heaped praise on United, saying they’ve improved immeasurably since the league games at the Etihad Stadium, where we won 6-3 and Old Trafford, where we were narrowly defeated 2-1.
He added: “A final is special for itself.
“The question is what are Manchester United doing in the last four, five, six months? It’s a different team to what we faced at the beginning of the season when we beat them here.
“They were much better when we played there and lost but I think we played good. It was a defeat but it’s football.
“I had the feeling the team, from the beginning of the season to now, has improved. That’s the reality.
“Their patterns are clearer and the quality they have is United.
“We are here and we have done well against them but it’s United. The quality of the players has always been here. Always they were good.”
