Quality Is The Benchmark

Guardiola warns his stars they must prove themselves continually.. if they don’t want to end up as subs

- Gideon Brooks

PEP Guardiola has warned his players not to rely on past glories for a place in his starting XI – insisting those sitting on the bench are there for a reason.

Burnley provided their usual boost to Manchester City’s fortunes with a fourth straight home 5-0 victory over the Clarets for Guardiola’s men.

But after a start to the season which has been underwhelming, both in terms of points and goals, the City boss still fired a warning shot at individuals he believes have taken their foot off the gas.

A question to Guardiola about resting and rotating his squad, in order to protect players, produced a surprisingly spiky response.

“It is not about rest here,” he said. “I saw that Kevin De Bruyne was a little bit exhausted mentally, and so he missed the trip to Olympiakos.