Manchester City’s new signings must imbibe winning culture, admits Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola has made an honest remark on the club’s new signings making an effort to gain knowledge of the standards the club have set for themselves over the years.

Manchester City returned to winning ways in the Premier League as a brace of goals and own goals from Erling Haaland and Burnley defender Maxime Esteve respectively helped Guardiola’s men to all three points at the Etihad Stadium.

Kyle Walker returned to the blue side of Manchester for the first time since joining Burnley this summer, with the 35-year-old impressing despite a late capitulation from Scott Parker’s men that saw City run away with the game and finish with a four-goal advantage to climb up the league table.

After losing twice in their opening trio of Premier League games this season, City have recovered since the international break with 13 points out of a possible 15 against Manchester United, Napoli, Arsenal, Huddersfield Town and Burnley.

An injury-time Gabriel Martinelli equaliser for Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium last weekend proved the difference between a draw and all three points for Guardiola’s side against the Gunners, with losses to Tottenham and Brighton promoting a turnaround in form for last term’s third-place Premier League finishers.

City registered their place in the Carabao Cup fourth-round against Swansea City with a comfortable 2-0 beating of Huddersfield Town in midweek, with the Blues also making a winning start to their UEFA Champions League group-stage campaign courtesy of a 2-0 win over Kevin De Bruyne and Napoli.

The club are undergoing a period of transition on the pitch in the backdrop of their most underwhelming season under Guardiola and in a decade, with City finishing with 71 points in the recent Premier League campaign, exiting the UEFA Champions League at the Round of 16 stage and losing the FA Cup final to Crystal Palace.

Hugo Viana’s arrival as director of football in the summer prompted a significant rejig of the first-team squad as several senior stars past their prime were shown the door before the recruitment of seven first-team signings.

Speaking after City’s 5-1 win over Burnley on Saturday, Guardiola said: “These new Manchester City players, they have to know this club has a culture that we have to win.

“Otherwise it would not have happened what happened in the last decade; by far the best team in England in terms of numbers and everything. But when you arrive in this club, in training sessions, all the patterns, the mentality you have to be, every training session doing your best, the players feel that.

“When we won the Premier Leagues in the past, all the titles, we never thought about that after six Premier League games. Just how we have to do to win the game, and be better for the next games.”

City return to UEFA Champions League duties with a tricky test away at AS Monaco looming on Wednesday and Guardiola will be desperate to avoid a slip-up in Europe so as to maintain his side’s recent run of form following their subdued start to the 2025-26 campaign.