Guardiola plays down City 'fatigue' concerns

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With his team flying high atop the Premier League, Pep Guardiola said fatigue was unlikely to play a role for Manchester City.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola dismissed concerns tiredness could prove to be the undoing of his high-flying side.

City have charged 13 points clear atop the Premier League after winning 18 of 19 games while scoring 60 goals.

While their high-energy, attacking style has impressed this season, it may have an impact – including during the busy Christmas period – but Guardiola has no concerns.

"Fatigue, I don't think so. It may happen but we've a good enough squad," the Spaniard told UK newspapers.

"Gabriel [Jesus] didn't play against Bournemouth – he played 120 minutes against Leicester and he's the biggest fighter in high pressing I've seen in my life. He helps us a lot with our intensity.

"Danilo, Bernardo [Silva], [Ilkay] Gundogan all helped us against Bournemouth. We have Yaya [Toure]. Last game, [Oleksandr] Zinchenko was man of the match and he was not in the squad against Bournemouth.

"Of course we will rotate in this period. We have a game every four days. Everyone that has played in the past is going to play in the future."

"That's a quality of the players I had in Barcelona, Bayern Munich and now here," he said.

"We're able to convince them how good it is going forward, be aggressive, without the ball, because after that we're quick and take decisions with the ball."