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Pep Guardiola warns Man City they have ‘no chance’ of beating Man Utd if they repeat Southampton no-show.
Pep Guardiola has warned his Manchester City players that if they replicate last night’s Southampton performance, they will have “no chance” of winning the Manchester United derby on Saturday.
Sekou Mara and Moussa Djenepo scored in the first half to give the Premier League’s worst team a 2-0 victory against all odds.
Even the additions of Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland following the restart failed to inspire City into action as they lost in a tournament they had previously dominated.
On Saturday, Guardiola’s team returns to action against Erik ten Hag’s quickly developing team in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford.
City crushed United 6-3 in the reverse fixture earlier this season when both Haaland and Phil Foden scored hat-tricks, but Guardiola accepts United are in a completely different place right now under their new manager and will pose a real threat.
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Guardiola said: ‘Every game is different, different competition but of course if you perform in this way we will not have a chance, in the moment they have and for many years they were looking for to stay in this position.
‘We know exactly what we have to do to play better and that’s what we are going to try to do.’
Guardiola also defended his decision to rest Haaland and De Bruyne from the start, pointing out that neither player featured in Sunday’s 4-0 FA Cup drubbing of Chelsea.
He added: ‘I leave them on the bench against Chelsea and you didn’t ask me that question because we won.
‘Always I believe when you play four competitions I have the feeling that you have to use everyone you have to be ready.
And the guys that don’t play have to do something with your body language to help the guys and everybody be involved. So who knows if Erling and Kevin it could have been different. I don’t know.
‘We tried to do our best. We rotated our team after we played Chelsea in the Premier League and we won and people say how nice is the decision.
‘I understand this business we want everyone to be invovled but today was not the case. I had the feeling today it doesn’t matter the line-up what I do we will perform in this way.’