‘Thank you so much’ - Pep Guardiola hits out over Newcastle United fixture decision

Pep Guardiola has sarcastically thanked the Premier League for allowing Manchester City v Newcastle United to take place on Saturday (kick-off 8pm).

City were in Athens last night as they lifted the UEFA Super Cup following a 5-4 win penalty shootout win over La Liga outfit Sevilla. The game ended 1-1 in normal time.

Last season’s triple winners have just two full days to prepare for the visit of the Magpies, which has angered Guardiola.

Speaking during last night’s press conference, the former Barcelona man said: “Of course, tomorrow we will be even happier than today, recovering [having had] not one drop of alcohol.

“[We need to] recover as much as possible because, again, from Greece, thank you so much to the Premier League for letting us play on Saturday, and not on Sunday and Monday. Thank you so much.”

This isn’t the first time Guardiola has hit out over the timing over the Newcastle fixture.

“We finish an incredibly stressful season, the players went to their national teams and had maybe not even three weeks [off],” he said, in the aftermath of his side’s Charity Shield defeat to Arsenal.

“We came back and trained a little in Manchester then trained to Asia and could not train there because it is impossible to train there.

“We played a decent game against Bayern and the other two matches, and after in a few days I saw incredible I saw that the guys are still here so we cannot complain. We have to recover well and prepare well [for] the game against Burnley and then travel to Athens to play at 10pm, finish at 2, then come back on Friday and after - thank you! - play on Saturday against Newcastle at home.

“This is my plan - not winning or losing.”