Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has revealed the one team his side will be trembling coming up against this season, with the Spaniard holding high expectations of Newcastle this year.
Pep Guardiola Fears Newcastle
Speaking on a podcast earlier this week, Pep Guardiola has revealed that along with Arsenal, Manchester City fear Newcastle and his side will be trembling when the champions face the Magpies.
Without European football this year, Guardiola thinks that Newcastle could pose a serious threat to the Premier League Champions, with their energy saved during the week when other teams near the top of the table play in Europe.
“You ask me now, Tottenham will be there, for the way they play, Newcastle will be back because it’s one game-a-week, they don’t have European competition. And the energy that they play with, the physicality that they play with, with just one game a week, we’ll be trembling. We will be trembling when we play against them.”
Newcastle’s first face off with City in the league this season comes at St James’ Park on Saturday the 28th of September.
Guardiola doesn’t just fear Newcastle and Spurs this year though, in a campaign that the Spaniard believes could be even closer than last season.
🇪🇦🗣️ Pep Guardiola: “The motivation to win another Premier League title is not there. For me, it’s not there…” 😳🏆❌
“It will be in the last month.”
— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) August 17, 2024
The 53-year-old continued: “Arsenal, ten to ten, for sure. Liverpool, we will see because the transition after Jurgen [Klopp] always is not easy but pre-season for Arne Slot has been amazing.
“And of course, United, with a lot of signings that they have done, Chelsea with all the signings that they have done, all the teams, Aston Villa, we’ll see how they handle playing Champions League and Premier League but yeah, six, seven teams will be there, will be a difficult top four again.”
City won their first game of the campaign over the weekend, with a fairly comfortable win for coming for the Cityzens away from home to top four hopefuls Chelsea.
Guardiola’s side next faces newly promoted Ipswich Town on Saturday, with the Tractor Boys hoping to cause the champions a headache in matchday 2.
