Guardiola: We must be at our best to beat Plymouth | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola says Plymouth Argyle will be treated with the greatest respect when City take on the Devon side in the FA Cup.

The Blues, chasing a third successive FA Cup final, take on the Championship side who arrive at the Etihad in the bottom three of their division.

But having already seen off Brentford and Liverpool, Guardiola says his team will have to be at their best to make the last quarter-finals of the competition.

Asked if Argyle were ‘unknown’ to him at his Friday press conference, the boss said: “No, they are not unknown. When you can beat the best team in the country this season Liverpool - and also Brentford - they are not unknown.

“And not just Liverpool. I saw [some of their] other games. They defend aggressively with their wingbacks. The transition they do with attacking midfielders inside, who link really well.

WATCH: Pep Guardiola's pre-match press conference

“With the strikers in Championship, the set pieces are the main thing, and the Premier League teams learn from this.

“The amount of free-kicks and corners they produce are not like the Premier League. They are solid. Since the manager took over, the results are there.

“We are expecting a difficult game. We play at home, and that is an advantage, the Orient game was so tough.

“We played many times in the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup against lower league teams and always they are tricky.

“What these teams do, they do really well. And if you are not ready you are in trouble.

“We have a chance to arrive in the last eight of the FA Cup again and we want to do it.”

And following the comments of Argyle boss Miron Muslic, who claimed taking on the Catalan is the biggest honour of his career, Pep responded: “I have an incredible bottle of wine after the game for his words. I appreciate it, thank you very much.”