Manchester City defender warns rivals on ‘underestimating’ Pep Guardiola’s side in Premier League title race | OneFootball

Josko Gvardiol has insisted that the lack of media attention regarding Manchester City’s Premier League title chances this season works in favour of the squad.

The Croatia international has been a colossus at the back for City since signing for the club in the summer of 2023 for £77 million from RB Leipzig – making him the second-most expensive defender in English football history at the time.

Gvardiol has since gone on to win the club’s Player of the Season award during the last campaign, standing out as a shining light during a difficult season by City’s standards as the club went the full season without major silverware for the first time since 2016/17.

The 23-year-old is not just defensively immense for the Blues, but has also excelled in other areas having often offered threat in the final third due to his complete profile and versatility, which often saw him deployed at left-back by Pep Guardiola.

Perhaps due to poor performance earlier on this season coupled with the recent 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa, pundits have by and large left Manchester City out of Premier League title discussions, seemingly certain that either Liverpool or Arsenal will clinch the trophy.

Whether a fair assessment or not, in a recent interview with ESPN, Josko Gvardiol has shown to be adamant that the lack of noise around his Manchester City teammates is motivation for the campaign.

“It motivates you. When you see that no one talks about you and they’re all talking about Arsenal and Liverpool – which is normal. They are good teams. We will see,” the versatile defender insisted.

The former four-in-a-row Premier League title winners started the ongoing campaign in far from ideal fashion in a results sense, losing two of the first three league fixtures against Tottenham and Brighton.

The former RB Leipzig man has explained that after tough losses, he could feel a shift in the media perception for his side as they continued to be written off, but Gvardiol believes this should be re-evaluated off the back of a nine-game unbeaten run in all competitions prior to the weekend’s defeat to Aston Villa.

“I would say at the beginning of the season you could feel it [being underestimated],” said Josko Gvardiol. “It was just about Liverpool and Arsenal.

“After the run we’ve had, everyone is getting aware again that we are still here. There are lots of games to play, and I think it’s going to be an interesting season.”

With Manchester City quietly ticking along in the background, and certainly not back to their best just yet albeit much improved, media focus shifting away from Pep Guardiola’s side in terms of a title race could leave the squad as potential dark horses for the title come May.