Pep Talk: “...they have lost one game in the last four or five, so that means they are back.”

Manchester City have a key away clash vs Leicester City and the main man Pep Guardiola has a lot to say. From injuries, Leicester style and much more...

Let’s dive right in-

On Leicester City

“The club is stable, he knows exactly what he has to do.

“When everything is going well it is easy to be manager. The problem is how you handle it when it is not going well.

“The expectation is always there with Leicester after what they achieved in the past, winning the Premier League, The FA Cup, Community Shield, so the expectations are high and it is not easy to handle.

“But you have seen they have lost one game in the last four or five, so that means they are back.”

On Alvarez/Haaland

“Normally when Erling is not ready, Julian is the first option.

“Of course we are going to play him, definitely. He can play in a false nine, but I don’t think this will happen.

“I think Julian can drop and is good [at] dropping, so if Erling is not playing, not tomorrow, for the future, Julian is the first option.”

“Play every game 90 minutes and he will score goals, maybe not like Erling.

“I know how difficult it is when you don’t play regularly.

“But since day one we are really impressed on many, many things with him.”

On injuries

“We will see how he feels. After we will decide - I will know it in two hours if he can play. “

Guardiola also revealed there are no fresh injury concerns from midweek, adding: “After the game everyone trained well. I have to wait for the people coming back to know exactly how they feel.”

“They are not ready for Leicester,” Pep confirmed.

“They are better, Kalvin especially.

“Apparently, when he came to Dortmund, he said he feels really well. He started to train with contact with the ball - he has not trained with his team-mates yet, but he feels really well, and we are surprised.

“If he is fit and can play (at the World Cup) he can play, but right now, we don’t know.

“They [Walker and Phillips] are optimistic. They are in touch with Gareth [Southgate]. Hopefully they can be ready and get selected.”

Interesting comments, City need the points here as Arsenal dropped some recently and the closing of that gap is huge.