Pep Guardiola has Manchester City peaking at the right time

Pep Guardiola has Manchester City peaking at the right time with a title run-in, Champions League quarter-final and FA Cup semi-final to follow after the international break

• Manchester City booked a FA Cup semi-final spot after thrashing Burnley 6-0 
• Pep Guardiola’s side are also on hunt for the league title and Champions League
• The Catalan is hoping to avoid previous years’ disappointment after the break

Pep Guardiola was straight on a plane to Barcelona on Sunday. And he will recharge at Abu Dhabi’s five-star Emirates Palace over the international break.

The settings are designed for those without a care in the world but Manchester City’s manager already has his mind cast towards 10 days in mid-April that has so often seen seasons of such historic promise disintegrate.

Bayern Munich at home. Leicester City at home. Bayern Munich away. Sheffield United at Wembley. Guardiola has lost four FA Cup semi-finals from five; his team for that particular game is usually much-changed, a date that is normally on the back of a European quarter-final. 

A selection of players who he picks to run out at Wembley are out of favour with points to prove and for whatever reason have rarely grasped the opportunity.

He will hope that this time is different after thrashing Burnley. The season could go two ways: it could yet result in a treble or nothing at all. 

Manchester City booked a FA Cup semi-final spot after thrashing Burnley 6-0 on Saturday

Pep Guardiola has City peaking at right time ahead of a busy run-in after international break

‘Don’t ask me again about doubles, trebles, quadruples, fivetuples, sixtuples or seventuples,’ said Guardiola. ‘The worst games we have played are always the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley. Our performances were really poor every time — even the year we won, against Brighton (in 2019), we struggled.

‘We haven’t been ready and hopefully this year we can prepare a bit better.

‘We’ve played naively, no good. Three-zero against Liverpool (in 2022)… I know they’re a good team but 3-0 at half-time? When we lost against Arsenal in Mikel Arteta’s first season, it was really bad. 

‘Hopefully this time we can behave like who we are. It’s not about reaching the final, I just always had the feeling that we didn’t compete, we were not there, we were not hungry enough.’

It is a message to the squad and he is full of them at the moment. Guardiola has told his players that he expects them to follow the club’s training programmes while away on international duty, ready for the final months.

The Catalan did reveal joy at still being ‘alive’ in the three biggest competitions by this point, something he has always used as a yardstick. 

Erling Haaland took his season’s tally to 42after scoring a hat-trick against the Clarets 

Clive Allen (R) says the Norwegian will break his record of 49 goals in a season for Tottenham

The gap to Arsenal is eight points, with 11 league games remaining. There is a feeling around City that they are just peaking nicely, which is evident after plundering 23 goals during six consecutive victories.

Erling Haaland (right) has 10 of those. Another hat-trick on Saturday, his sixth of a staggering first go at English football, and the records are about to tumble. He stands at 42 goals, with potentially 18 matches still to play.

Clive Allen’s 49 in all competitions for Tottenham in 1987 is under serious threat. Allen was at the Etihad on Saturday. Can Haaland beat him? ‘Of course he can,’ said Allen. ‘I predicted 55 and he might well smash through that. He has that great knack of being in the right place. That doesn’t happen by chance. He’s remarkable, this boy.’ The Haaland factor is about to get that bit more interesting.

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