Pep: We’d prefer to lead than chase | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola says he’d much rather lead the Premier League table and have points in the bag than hunting down the leaders.

City briefly topped the table with our 3-0 win over West Ham United last weekend, before Arsenal resumed pole position with a narrow victory away to Everton.

The Blues will have the chance of going to the summit again when we take on Nottingham Forest at Saturday lunchtime with Arsenal taking on  Brighton later in the day.

“However, the boss is expecting nothing less than a difficult game at an emotionally-charged City Ground, given the sad news that Forest legend John Robertson has passed away.

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“Well, the best place to be is at the top and still we’re not there,” said Pep.

“I’d prefer to be ten points clear of everyone, but it is what it is. Arsenal’s doing really well but we are there, so at the end we’re still in the end of December, and the Champions League we are up there and Premier League we are there, semi-finals of the Carabao Cup, we start the FA Cup soon, [with] some important players are coming back, so let’s step by step, game by game what’s going to happen

“We’re travelling to one of the toughest places, and Forest away has always been tough, especially in this period and with an important person in the history and legacy like Mr. Robertson who unfortunately passed away.

“On behalf of Manchester City, I wanted to give big condolences to Forest especially, his family, I know how important he was, scoring in the European Cup, Champions League in that time. It’ll be nice tomorrow to take a tribute on behalf of Man City for an important player for that club.”

Guardiola was also asked about Rayan Cherki’s potential given his sparkling form of late, but added there is always room for improvement, from each and every one of his players.

“It’s not just [Cherki], I want everyone [to do even better], but I know the strengths and weaknesses for the players, because I am with them, we are with them every single day and every advice and comment and every suggestion, it’s just to make them better, better and better.

“I never in my life want the player to be worse or not try to do our best to become a better player. That’s for sure.

“[For Cherki], the sky is the limit - the people say that, right? It depends on his limits, what does he want to become - he can achieve it because of course he’s an incredibly talented player.”

And with the January transfer window just days away, Pep admits he is not ruling out anything.

“Everything can happen,” he said. “Last season, when we started it I never could’ve expected going into the transfer window with four or five players because we had [so many] players injured.”

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