Manchester City squad players given chance to prove they are ‘good enough’ this Christmas as Pep Guardiola shuffles his deck

Manager plays down talk of breaking European consecutive win streak that he set during his time at Bayern Munich as ‘nothing special’

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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola speaks with Fabian Delph during his side’s Premier League meeting with Bournemouth. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:07am, 26 Dec 2017Updated: 10:25pm, 26 Dec 2017

Pep Guardiola will put squad rotation ahead of rewriting the European football history books when runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City visit Newcastle on Wednesday.

Guardiola’s side crushed Bournemouth on Saturday to make it 17 successive league victories, two short of the current record for the top five European leagues, set by Bayern Munich during the current City manager’s reign with the Germany club.

But as City continue to battle for silverware in four competitions, and negotiate the gruelling fixture schedule over the Christmas period, Guardiola is more interested in making sure his stars keep up their intense style of play than in setting new records.

Manchester City's Brazilian defender Danilo celebrates scoring the side’s fourth goal against Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium. Photo: AFP

“Fatigue, I don’t think it will be a problem. It may happen but we’ve a good enough squad,” Guardiola said.

“Gabriel (Jesus) didn’t play against Bournemouth – he played 120 minutes against Leicester (in the League Cup) and he’s the best fighter in the high pressing I’ve ever seen in my life. He helps us a lot with our intensity.

“Danilo, Bernardo, (Ilkay) Gundogan all helped us against Bournemouth. We have Yaya (Toure).