Manchester City will face Watford in the Carabao Cup just 48 hours after playing Arsenal in the Premier League later this month.
The Premier League champions will have take on the Hornets on Tuesday 24th September as Manchester United are playing at home in the Europa League on the 25th.
Many supporters on X have criticised the decision to host the Arsenal and Watford games so close to each other, but others are still confident that Pep Guardiola’s men can win both fixtures:
Two days after arsenal… That’s insane. Get those subs rotated in!
— 🍉 Mcatee Stonks 🍉 (@adl0133) September 4, 2024
Man City will easily win all
— The KENYAN VIRGIN (@SamX6141) September 4, 2024
Now I can see why guardiola said the season begins after international break
— mancity lawyer (@ssempeerajosep4) September 4, 2024
We will smoke everyone. Let’s go City! 💪
— Aman Parmar (@ThatParmarGuy) September 4, 2024
This is a lot of strain on the players
— Mancunian Elite🏆🏆🏆 (@jr_ghislain) September 4, 2024
Easy fixtures
— Haaland’OR (@sudeep_maraseni) September 4, 2024
City will be playing 3 times in 6 days
The Premier League champions will have to make full use of their squad as they will face Newcastle in the league on the following Saturday.
It means there is very little time for the players to have a rest, especially as the Cityzens have a trip to Slovakia for their Champions League match against Slovan Bratislava after that.
Guardiola has warned about the packed fixture schedule
Speaking after the 3-1 win victory over West Ham last weekend, Pep Guardiola stated that the campaign only really gets going now:
“Pre-season is over, today officially. The real season starts after the international break.”
The number of games does look daunting but, if they can come through it unscathed, it would be a huge boost for City heading into the rest of the campaign.
Find out who is in Manchester City’s first-team squad for the 2024/2025 season here