'Not fair' - Pep Guardiola blasts Premier League schedule amid De Bruyne and Haaland wait

Pep Guardiola has implored his players not to use the tight turnaround between fixtures this week as an excuse, even if he believes Manchester City's schedule is unfair.

With an 8.15pm kick-off on Wednesday against Aston Villa not seeing the Blues finish until after 10pm, there are just 62 hours between full time in that game and kick-off against Crystal Palace on Saturday in the lunchtime kick-off.

"It's not fair but we're going to do it," bemoaned Guardiola ahead of the trip to South London, reminding his players that they have battled with busy schedules before. Having admitted that he will not pick his team until the last minute to give his players as much time as possible to recover, Guardiola was keen not to lean on excuses before the game.

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Jurgen Klopp has been a vocal critic of the Saturday 12.30pm kick-off, especially after Wednesday fixtures either domestically or in Europe, and Guardiola has added his voice to his rival's when it comes to the 'unfair' scheduling for broadcast purposes.

"We are used to it. It happened in the last years that way. One game at a time, don't give up," he said. "Win the next game and after if you can't control your destiny, wait.

"We are used to playing every three days in a short margins every month so it is not that we are new to playing European competitions. The players know that they can handle - not all the time but most of the time they handle exactly what they have to do. It's nothing much.

"We play at 12,30, it's perfect. More time until the next game in Madrid to recover. If we played