Pep Guardiola insisted he will play Manchester City's FA Cup third round match against 'home club' Salford City in their quest to win back the trophy they lost last year.
Guardiola's side reached the final of the competition last year but were beaten 2-1 by rivals Manchester United at Wembley in May.
After a torrid end to 2024, the Citizens started the new year with a comfortable 4-1 win over West Ham to make it back-to-back Premier League wins for the first time since October.
And Guardiola will be confident of making it three consecutive wins in all competitions given City's excellent performances at this stage of the FA Cup in recent seasons.
They have not been knocked out in the third round of the FA Cup since 2011/12, when they lost 3-2 to Man United. Including replays, they have won their last eleven third-round games by an aggregate score of 46-4.
Since losing 1-0 to Wigan in the FA Cup fifth round in 2017-18, City have also won their last 24 matches against lower division sides (in both the EFL Cup and FA Cup) by an aggregate score from 88-12. .
Saturday's meeting with Class of 92 owned Salford will be their first ever meeting in all competitions and Guardiola plans to give the clash his full attention.
“I've lived in Salford for the last eight years, so I'm going to play against my neighbourhood, my hometown,” Guardiola said.
“I have a lot of respect for the manager [Karl Robinson]we played at Oxford years ago and when he was assistant to Sam Allardyce at Leeds.
“The last six games, six clean sheets and six wins, so I have a huge amount of respect for them and what they do, the intensity, and we will take it seriously, as we always have.
“Hopefully we can play a good game and get three wins in a row. It's been a long time since this happened.”
On to the cup pic.twitter.com/rRKQOq8dHD
— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 9, 2025
Guardiola was also on hand to distance the club from rumors linking them with a move for Eintracht Frankfurt striker Omar Marmoush during the January window.
Marmoush has been the standout performer for Dino Toppmoller's side this season, with 29 goals (18 goals, 11 assists) in all competitions this season.
The Egyptian's tally of 13 goals in the Bundesliga is surpassed only by Bayern Munich's Harry Kane (14), while he has scored more shots (64) than any other player in the division.
“I was clear in my answer: I am not going to talk. He is a player from another club, I will not answer.”
“You can say at any press conference that if you talk about the transfer window until the end, I'm not going to answer any questions!
“The same thing happened in the past. I was clear. You can try whenever you want, no problem, but you know my answer. It's easy. No comment.”
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