Pep Guardiola's despair at Man City players' Burnley 'celebration' hides a steely resolve

Pep Guardiola says his team “celebrated” their vital win at Burnley by burying their heads in their phones. But the Manchester City manager said his squad are ready for the challenge of a fortnight that will make or break their bid for three trophies this season.

The Blues face Atletico Madrid in two Champions League quarter-final legs, starting on Tuesday, with next week’s Premier League showdown against Liverpool inbetween - and then take on the Merseysiders again in the FA Cup semi-final. City regained top spot in the title race by winning 2-0 at Turf Moor after Jurgen Klopp’s team had briefly hit top spot by beating Watford earlier on Saturday.

But Guardiola smiled when asked how his players had reacted to an important victory and said: “Take the phone and look at the phone - Instagram. That is the generation of the football players. I take five minutes to talk but they take the phone.

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"I give up – they do whatever they want. Tomorrow we talk about Atletico. As long as they are focussed during the game, the rest I don’t care.”

But while Guardiola was having a bit of generation-gap fun in despairing at his players’ phone obsession, he says that the squad is geared up for the titanic battles ahead: “What I say, they feel too,” he said. “They know how hard they fight, how tough is the opponent, how difficult is the Champions League and the FA Cup. But Liverpool feel it too.

“The way we played at Palace and Southampton in the Premier League we should be in a better position. We played much better (in the 1-1 league game) than we did against Southampton in the FA Cup (a 4-1 win). That is football. It's an expression I love and use a lot – it’s