Pep Guardiola already knows what Man City's treble defence will look like

Pep Guardiola won't let his Manchester City players forget what they achieved last season, but has warned his squad that defending their treble will be harder than winning it.

City won the Premier League for the third time in a row, the FA Cup, and their first-ever Champions League last season, becoming only the second English team to win the treble after Sir Alex Ferguson's great Manchester United side. Just under two months on from that night in Istanbul, Guardiola's men begin their new campaign hoping to lift the Community Shield against Premier League runners-up Arsenal.

Speaking ahead of the game, Guardiola said there was no benefit to his players trying to put the treble success behind them in favour of focussing purely on the season ahead. He insisted that using those memories can serve as inspiration to defend the three titles - plus go out and win the four other competitions on offer this season.

With expanded competitions, more games and more titles to play for, Guardiola insisted that their task of winning trophies will continue to get harder in the coming seasons, so that is all the more reason to remember the highs of last season.

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“I don’t allow them to forget anything we’ve done. What is the sense?" asked Guardiola.

“And how would you do that as a manager, forget the good moments? What they’ve done, we cannot forget any of that. It’s our job so what sense is there?

“The players know what they have to do. We are going to face teams who will be more aggressive, so we tell the players ‘this is the level we have to regain’.

“We need every single game to build our patterns, our principles, our rhythm and be aware how difficult it is