Fixture schedule: I must take care of my players — Guardiola

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says he has to “take care” of his players like “a father and mother take care of their sons” as his side faces a heavy fixture schedule.

In the past week, City beat Manchester United and Napoli before conceding a stoppage-time equaliser at Arsenal on Sunday.

The team now heads to League One side Huddersfield Town on Wednesday in the Carabao Cup, with injuries mounting across the squad.

“First comes the spirit we have shown this week, and you have to take care of this like a father and mother takes care of their sons.

“We can be a stable team and step by step, when injured players come back we will learn for what we can do better.

“Gigi (Gianluigi Donnarumma) will get better and James (Trafford) will get better and the team will grow up,” Guardiola said.

Erling Haaland will not feature against Huddersfield after leaving the Arsenal game with a back problem. Guardiola remains hopeful the striker will return for Saturday’s league match against Burnley.

Abdukodir Khusanov was withdrawn at half-time at the Emirates, while Rayan Cherki and Omar Marmoush are unavailable. The status of Rayan Ait-Nouri is uncertain after a knock.

City endured a poor campaign last season without a major trophy and went into the September break on the back of consecutive defeats. But they have since responded with three games unbeaten.

“Since I started as a manager from the second team at Barcelona until now, I always asked for one thing – I want the players to give everything to the pitch,” Guardiola said.

“Last season we didn’t do it in some moments and this season, especially from the USA and since United, we started to recover many things that defined our team for many years.

“When this happened [conceding an equaliser at Arsenal], I could not care less about the fact that we could do better. Yes, we could make better decisions – we will do it.”

Kalvin Phillips will not be involved at Huddersfield, with Guardiola confirming the midfielder is in London awaiting the birth of his second child.

Guardiola’s approach at Arsenal drew scrutiny after he deployed a 5-5-0 formation. City’s 33% possession was the lowest recorded by one of his sides in 601 top-flight games.

“I’m really proud, satisfied,” he said.

“We recovered many things that we missed last season. We had an incredible spirit. Of course we cannot sustain all season to play in the way we played, and we don’t want to, but I give incredible power to the opponents.

“Arsenal, for most of their games, are able to do that to other opponents, and I want to learn to celebrate when we draw a game in the way that we did away against Arsenal, who are a big contender and reached the semi-final of the Champions League. I want to celebrate that point.”

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