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Champs City open EPL season against Burnley

Published:Friday | August 11, 2023 | 12:08 AM
Manchester City's manager Pep Guardiola gives instructions to his players during the English FA Community Shield final match between Arsenal and Manchester City at Wembley Stadium in London, Sunday, August 6, 2023.
AP
Manchester City's manager Pep Guardiola gives instructions to his players during the English FA Community Shield final match between Arsenal and Manchester City at Wembley Stadium in London, Sunday, August 6, 2023.

MANCHESTER, England (AP):

For Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City players, the comedown has started from the club’s greatest ever season.

“We climbed the highest mountain with what we have done,” Guardiola said yesterday, in reference to City winning the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League for a rare treble. “The last two days, we came down the mountain.”

The new season starts in earnest today when City opens the Premier League with an away match against Burnley, and it means a 10-month slog begins again.

Guardiola knows that too well and he pretty much acknowledges that life will never be as good for City again.

“I don’t think it will be possible to do again what we did last season,” he said. “It’s once in a lifetime. So I said to the players, ‘Forget about it.’”

“There will be a lot of difficulties,” Guardiola added, “to climb as high as possible the mountain, and we will see that our football, our behaviour, our mentality will dictate how the season will be. What we have done remains in our hearts, our minds. How nice it was. But it’s over ... it’s almost impossible to repeat.”

City have more games on their schedule — the UEFA Super Cup against Sevilla takes place on Wednesday and there is the Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia in December — and there is a general feeling that City might need to strengthen its squad, especially in attack, to handle it.

Midfielder Ilkay Gundogan has gone to Barcelona and been replaced by Mateo Kovacic.

Defender Josko Gvardiol has come in, most likely to replace Aymeric Laporte, who appears surplus to requirements.

City have sold winger Riyad Mahrez to the Saudi Arabian league and he hasn’t been replaced. Cole Palmer, a 21-year-old academy product, has been viewed as a potential replacement, but Guardiola couldn’t guarantee that Palmer would still be at City by the end of the transfer window amid interest from West Ham.

Another winger seems necessary if City is to be as dangerous as last season, especially with potential title rivals Arsenal and Manchester United having strengthened during the offseason.