Pep Guardiola provides 16-word secret behind Manchester City’s fitness success as update provided for Fulham clash

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has offered his take on what the ‘secret’ is behind the club’s strong fitness status for the course of a 55-game season.

The boost to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City squad comes at a vital time for the club’s hopes of becoming the first side to win the Premier League title in four successive seasons, as well as their FA Cup final plans for the end of the month.

City know that they are three wins away from achieving the feat, with Fulham being the first of two away games in the space of four days, with the Champions returning to London on Tuesday night for a clash against Tottenham.

Manchester City will then close out their season at home to West Ham United, with on-loan midfielder Kalvin Phillips expected to return to the City Football Academy next week to continue rehabilitation from a season-ending calf injury.

Speaking ahead of Manchester City’s visit to face Fulham on Saturday afternoon, Pep Guardiola provided an update on the overall fitness of his squad as he revealed, “No, everything is fine.”

Quizzed further in light of the update, Guardiola was also asked for his belief on the secret behind Manchester City’s fitness success, with little injuries being sustained given the fact the club consistently play out 55-game seasons at least.

“I don’t know. I don’t know about other clubs but from many years, we have an incredible medical department with physios, with a lot of work,” Guardiola said.

“But doing the same, maybe it could be the opposite. But this is true that we were fortunate in the last season to have few injuries.”

Manchester City have had problems with a number of key players at various moments of the ongoing season, but have certainly managed well to find themselves in a position where they could now retain their domestic double as part of last season’s Treble.

Manchester United will be the club’s opponents in the final of the FA Cup at the end of this month, with Erik ten Hag and his side out for revenge following last season’s edition of the finale, that saw Ilkay Gundogan score a memorable brace.