Conquering the Premier League and naming Manchester City’s rivals – Every word from Pep Guardiola’s embargoed pre-Chelsea press conference | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side begin their defence of yet another Premier League title this weekend as they travel to ace Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

The meeting with Enzo Maresca’s side comes just a matter of weeks after first meeting in City’s fourth and final pre-season friendly match of their United States tour, as Erling Haaland and Oscar Bobb inspired a strong victory for the club.

A hat-trick from the Norwegian striker, complimented by a sumptuous individual goal from his fellow international teammate put Manchester City into a 4-0 lead, before conceding two late goals to flatter Chelsea in the scoreline.

City have been further boosted by their confidence-inducing penalty shoot-out win over Manchester United in the FA Community Shield last weekend, to claim the first piece of silverware of the new season.

As players continue to build their match readiness and sharpness for the new season, Pep Guardiola is well aware that Manchester City may not be at their scintillating best on matchday one, but will be hoping to see certain standards set by his side.

Reflecting on his summer break, analysing whether he has ‘conquered the Premier League’, as well as his initial ambitions for the new season were among the subjects discussed by the Manchester City manager during part two of his pre-match media address.

This is every single word from the embargoed section of Pep Guardiola’s pre-Chelsea press conference from the City Football Academy on Friday afternoon!

On whether he has conquered the Premier League

“In the past, yeah. When you win six in seven, we’ve conquered the Premier League. But we start from zero. It’s 114 points to play, so we start from zero everyone and we’ll see. If we want to conquer, we have to conquer again.

“Because they are not going to give us now the Premier League for the 2024/25 season. So we have to do it. Normally, when the people say we are favourites, we have to accept it. When you have won four in a row, six in seven, it’s normal you have to accept that you are favourites, we have to live with that.

“But I know what we have to do. It’s point by point, we must win, and of course, every season it’s more and more difficult.”

On whether his own hunger remains the same

“Yeah, competition makes me be again in the position that I want to be. When it’s pre-season, or the other one, we are more flat, but the moment we arrive in the Community Shield and arrive in the competition, we have to ignite something in myself, hopefully the players as well, to do it again.”

On how he goes into each season having won so much already

“Yeah, you said it perfectly, these are the right words. If you don’t have this enthusiasm or passion or desire, don’t be here, don’t stay in front of you. That is the key in everything. The pressure is quite similar to what I had on day one, I would say a little bit less for the fact that when you have done it it gives you a sense of peace in yourself.

“But at the same time if you believe in nothing happens because you lose, you are not going to win, or you are not going to do your job. Our job is when you do the proper things and you win, you live better. And the prospect is if you don’t lift the trophies to win for 11 months, 12 months to live better.

“Living better is doing your life or your job as you have to do at your highest point, otherwise if you believe that we have done it and we can be relaxed or whatever, we are not going to win, we are not going to be in the top four.

“Because always, in the beginning of the season, the first target is going into the top four. And the people say, ‘Ah, come on. What?’ No. Newcastle – they’re not in European competition – they’re going to play one game a week. And Newcastle, one game a week, this season will be the Newcastle of two seasons ago.

“And Arsenal it’s not necessary to talk about, Liverpool it’s not necessary to talk about, I know the signings of (Manchester) United and at the end they’re going to take the moment and they will be there. Tottenham, I’m pretty sure of that as well, they invest in the young players, with the manager who knows better.

“So there are a lot, a lot of teams – Chelsea, again, with the amount of players, the quality, I believe with the manager. All the six or seven teams are there. If you drop a little bit, you will be away. And this is the reality I’ve felt from the first season that I arrived here, and after, yeah, we proved ourselves that we can do it. And we’ll try to do it again this season, it’s simple.”

On whether it’s about playing down things after wins or defeats

“Yeah, that’s a point. We saw in the Olympic games in the last two weeks. Four years to compete, for one minute, 10 minutes, so I don’t know how long the competition takes, and the glory or not glory, you suffer for example in the semi-finals with Serbia against United States in Basketball – one of the best games I’ve ever seen in Basketball.

“Serbia are losers? They are not. The silver or the bronze medals are losers? Absolutely not! You are losers when you don’t do what you have to do as best as possible. I know we get big compliments for just the winners, but it’s not about that. That problem is I see still we have the desire to compete.

“I know everyone wants to beat us, it’s normal. When you conquer in the Premier League in the last years, everyone wants to beat us, in every stadium, in the FA Cup, in the Carabao Cup, in the Premier League especially, Champions League of course is a little bit different, it’s normal. But OK; look at ourselves and what we can do better, what we can do better as a team, always we can improve, always.

“You have the desire to individually be better, I want to be a better manager and the players want to be better individually. If we increase everyone a little bit, our weaknesses, we will increase 11 players. Our strengths will be 11 times better, and this is the target that we have to be focussed.

“If it’s just the satisfaction to lift the trophy, it cannot be, because we’ve won it already. So it doesn’t change from four or five Premier Leagues, six or seven Premier Leagues, it doesn’t change much. It’s how individually can we be better as a football player, to help the team to be better, that will help us to stay there again, and again.

“And of course, when we arrive in the last month, close to winning another Premier League, it will be the motivation. But now? The motivation to win another Premier League is not there, for me it’s not there. It will be in the last months, now it’s can we beat Chelsea when last season we could not beat them?

“Can we practice in these two or three weeks together to apply better and improve? It will not be a perfect game against Chelsea, we are not completely at our top. It’s normal, it’s completely normal. But the standards will be enough to win the game? That is the point.”

On whether he feels completely different after a summer break compared to May in terms of energy levels

“Yeah, of course. Of course when you arrive at the end of the season you are a little bit tired, but when you fight for the titles you are less tired than if you have no chance. But of course, all of us, when you take a break in your job and disconnect a little bit, you bring energy back. It’s necessary.

“To work better, you have to disconnect, you have to relax your brain, your mind and think of other things, and do other things, otherwise you are in a moment that doesn’t work. I learned before that it was, ‘You have to work’, no. Sometimes resting, you are working. You work better.”

On whether he has learned how to disconnect over the years and is not good at it

“Sometimes I’m tired, and in that moment I don’t work. I rest. And after I rest, I’m ready to work harder, and better. Because not all the time I’m happy, not all the time I have energy to work the games. That’s why I have staff, backroom staff, to help me, and I help them.

Before it was not like that; it was no I have to do it, and it’s not productive. What is important is the moment you work, the moment you are in front of the players, the moment you have to give a message or a decision to take, be relaxed or more concentrated.

“It’s the same with the players; they’re given a lot of days off, a lot, they need it. Without competition I don’t want to be training when you play every three days, but the moment we are here, we have to be there. In the moment of the game, we have to.”

On whether it is his decision to rest, or his wife, or someone else

“No, myself. My people don’t know if I’m tired or not tired, I know it.”

On reuniting with former Barcelona Academy players during the summer

“Yeah, it was nice. It was so nice. 15 years since the first time that I won that league and were promoted from the third division. It was really nice to see all of them. Most of them are fathers, some divorced, some retired, some still playing, other ones starting to be managers.

“So it was really, really nice to spend this four or five hours together, after many, many years we could not see each other. We start from there, all of them, we were so young and it was really, really nice. Hopefully we can repeat quite often.”