Guardiola understands managers who pep up attack with set-pieces

Man City boss recalls Arsene Wenger taking about playing at Stoke

- Peter Smith

LONG THROW: Brentford's Michael Kayode. Inset, Pep Guardiola and Tony Pulis.

PEP Guardiola namechecked Stoke City to remind national journalists that set-pieces and long throws are not a new invention.

Guardiola might have dabbled in picking four centre-halves across his defence in the style of Tony Pulis but he probably isn't going to pull on a baseball cap and buy into the Premier League's current dead ball trend quite as much as Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta.

But he isn't snobbish about corners, free-kicks or throws either - and knows the importance of making sure his side is as prepared as possible to deal with the kind of threat that was once the preserve of Pulis's Stoke.

He said: "It's true that people use every throw-in like a corner and put 10 players there in the box.