Pep Guardiola believes that Manchester City’s success in recent years is a result of their humble attitude towards each opponent and the acceptance that “anyone can beat” them.
At Kenilworth Road last week, Luton’s fans were heard chanting “you’ve bought it all” as Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish completed a second-half turnaround to take all three points from Luton.
City’s success over recent years, including their stellar treble from last season, has been stained by the amount of money that has been pumped into the club. The 115 charges issued by the Premier League to City in February also adds further discolouring to City’s red carpet of success.
Since becoming Manchester City’s manager in 2016, Guardiola has spent just over £1 billion on new players. The most spent on an individual player was £100 million for Jack Grealish from Aston Villa- which at the time was the most expensive transfer in Premier League history.
However, Guardiola has put City’s success down to their humility and the understanding that any side can beat them.
Pep said: “We believe that we are exceptional- I think that other teams don’t believe that it is easy otherwise they would have done what we done.”
“Of course, it is very, very complicated and we had the feeling that going to Luton Town that it would be extremely complicated and Liverpool and Arsenal also found it tough.
“The margin of teams winning there is small- like we won there 1-2. I want me and my players to have that sweating feeling after we win there. I like that- the feeling that it will be difficult there.
“Our success came from that- we don’t take any team for granted, we don’t listen to what other people say that it is easy to win and to realise that you have to lose games. You have to realise that, ‘wow, we have a problem here, four games without winning in the Premier League, what has happened.’ That is so necessary.”
