Guardiola
Pep Guardiola has told his Manchester City players to not even waste a second thinking about the prospect of winning a treble this season.
The reigning English champions saw off second-tier side Bristol City 3-0 on Tuesday, thanks to Phil Foden’s brace and a Kevin De Bruyne strike, to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals.
City are level with RB Leipzig at 1-1 after the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie and trail Arsenal – who have a game in hand – by two points in the Premier League.
Guardiola has previous experience of winning a European and domestic treble during his time with Barcelona, but he is not giving that any consideration right now.
“No, forget about it,” he said when asked about the possibility of lifting three trophies this season. “Forget it.
“When you start to talk about that, you start to lose competitions and drop competitions. We are not ready. We will not spend even one second thinking about that. We just think about [the next game against] Newcastle.
“The only thing I’ve said many times – I’m so annoyed to say it again and again and again and again after what happened in the last years – we are still two, three months away from finishing the season, we are still in three competitions.”
City have won the Premier League in four of the past five seasons, and Guardiola says toppling Arsenal – while also holding off in-form rivals Manchester United – remains the top priority for his side.
“That is the biggest credit. This is the biggest title. The biggest one,” he said.
“I know we cannot drop points in the Premier League because we have on top of us a team [Arsenal], and United are coming from behind.
“And the Champions league, we see what happen in two weeks. What is important is we are there, but of course, we are going to continue as long as possible.”