Pep Guardiola urges his Manchester City squad to set the tone for next season's Premier League title defence
Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City’s form over the next five games will tell him whether they have the strength of character and the motivation to defend their Premier League title.
Guardiola allowed his players to celebrate their title victory this week, but he has already turned his attention to next season and is looking for the early warning signs of complacency.
Nobody has won back-to-back title since Manchester United in 2009 and Guardiola argued that is the next challenge as he looks to replicate the sort of sustained success Sir Alex Ferguson had at Manchester United.
He will therefore urge his players to go unbeaten over the next five games and set a new Premier League points record, breaking the 95 barrier set by Chelsea, under Jose Mourinho, in 2005.
“We have one year to defend it,” said Guardiola. “Chelsea won it last year, but this year not so good and I know how complicated it is to win back-to-back titles in England. It has not happened for almost a decade.
"Manchester United won three titles in a row, twice, under Alex Ferguson, but no team has won four. That has happened in Spain and in Germany, but not in England.
“I don’t know how these players will react to success. There are so many contenders in England and they will all prepare so well, it’s an exciting challenge.”
“We have to see how we handle the experience. This club has won three Premier League titles in seven years, but after winning the league, [next season was] not so good. It’s exciting to see how we react next season. We may have to change a few things to make the next step forward.
Manchester City player ratings for Premier League title winning season
“In the past, I won the league at Bayern and at Barca with five, six or seven games [left to play] but the next games were not good.
“I was not able to…we have to think about how many points we can get, it can be a good argument. What we need to do is already done, the points record is not the most important thing, but maybe it can help us to be focused.
“It would be uncomfortable to finish in a bad way, there always has to be a target and maybe [scoring] the most goals and [winning} the most points will be a good focus."
