Guardiola says City are not ready for the rush of matches ahead

VIDEO SHOWS: PRESS CONFERENCE WITH PEP GUARDIOLA SHOWS: MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, UK (JUNE 16, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) PEP GUARDIOLA, MANCHESTER CITY MANAGER, SAYING: "The way we are right now I think that other clubs, other teams, we don't know.

If you ask me how is the team I don't know.

Tomorrow we will see how is the level of the team." 2.

WHITE FLASH 3.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) PEP GUARDIOLA, MANCHESTER CITY MANAGER, SAYING: "What we were worried was this three weeks, lack of preparation like other teams in the Premier League, not like for example in Germany or Spain, they work five or six weeks, all the teams in the Premier League they have just maybe three weeks, three and a half, of course we know it's not enough but it is what it is." 4.

WHITE FLASH 5.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) PEP GUARDIOLA, MANCHESTER CITY MANAGER, SAYING: "So I think we are ready to play one game, but three days after another one and four days after another one, we are not ready.

Not just Man City, all teams. But that is why you have to rotate and use absolutely all the players, and the players with like natural the way they are in a physical condition better, they can sustain more time." 6.

WHITE FLASH 7.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) PEP GUARDIOLA, MANCHESTER CITY MANAGER, SAYING: "I'm so excited for the fact to see him again (Mikel Arteta), one of the nicest people I ever met.

It was a joy for me and all of us to work with him.

The feeling I have is he's happy there, doing an incredible job, so looking forward to seeing him, I'll see him tomorrow." 8.

WHITE FLASH 9.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) PEP GUARDIOLA, MANCHESTER CITY MANAGER, SAYING: "He knows absolutely everything of us because it's the same what we are at the moment as when he was here.

He was an incredibly important part of our success in the last years, he was aa important person for us, he helped us to be who we are." STORY: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says he does not know how ready his players are for the restart of the Premier League and the flood of matches to come.

Second-placed City play Arsenal, managed by Guardiola's former assistant Mikel Arteta, at the Etihad on Wednesday (June 17).

City then host Burnley next Monday, travel down to Chelsea the following Thursday and across to Newcastle United on the Sunday.

"The way we are right now I think that other clubs, other teams, we don't know.

If you ask me how is the team I don't know.

Tomorrow we will see how is the level of the team," Guardiola told reporters on a Zoom call.

"I think we are ready to play one game, but three days after another one and four days after another one, we are not ready.

Not just Man City, all teams." Guardiola said his players were in good shape but expressed concern that they had only three weeks of group training to get ready after months without a match.

Clubs in Germany and Spain had five or six.

In Arteta, Guardiola will be facing an old friend and while foes on the pitch he hoped he would have time to catch up afterwards.

Both have suffered over the past months, Guardiola losing his mother to the COVID-19 pandemic while Arteta caught the disease himself and had to self-isolate.

(Production: Andy Ragg)