Guardiola urges 'step by step' improvements as City grow close to their best

Pep Guardiola has urged his Manchester City side to keep improving step by step, even as he admits they are edging closer to their peak.

The City boss was pleased with his team’s showing in their narrow 1-0 win at Brentford – their first Premier League away victory since August.

The result, sealed by Erling Haaland’s early goal, also earned Guardiola a place alongside Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger as only the third manager in English top-flight history to reach 250 wins.

Remarkably, Guardiola achieved the milestone in just his 349th match, making him the fastest manager ever to do so.

Reflecting on the performance, the Spaniard said his team had made clear progress but stressed the need for further improvements.

“We had an outstanding first half [against Brentford]. We were close to our best in many things," Guardiola said.

“The problem is when you have chances and don’t score goals, and [Caoimhin Kelleher] made good saves, so a 1-0 becomes very difficult in the second half.

“In general, really pleased, since the Manchester United game, the team grew up a lot.”

Guardiola also heaped praise on Haaland, who followed his goal at Brentford with a hat-trick for Norway in World Cup qualifying, extending his scoring run to ten consecutive games (nine goals in three matches for Norway, 10 in seven for City) – the longest streak of his club and international career.

“[I said to Haaland] just keep going. He has been so important to us this season,” Guardiola added after the Brentford match.

“But the wingers have to score more goals, they have to create more, finish more. Step by step, we will do it.”

Everton, meanwhile, have started the season with plenty of promise and were buoyed by a stoppage-time winner from City loanee Jack Grealish in their last outing against Crystal Palace

The Toffees currently sit eighth in the table, just two points behind City.

David Moyes’ side have been further lifted by the contract renewal of James Tarkowski, who believes European qualification is within reach for Everton this season.

“It’s always been an ambition of mine to play European football. I had a brief spell with Burnley in the qualifiers, but we didn’t make it to the group stages, so I want to get there,” Tarkowski said.

“It's the manager’s goal, it's our goal as a team and, so far, we’ve started pretty well.

“Of course, it could have been better but we’ve had a decent start and we’re definitely striving to get into those European spots and bring European football to our new stadium.”

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Manchester City – Erling Haaland

Haaland has scored nine goals in Manchester City’s seven Premier League games this season.

Should he score against Everton, this would be only the third instance of a player reaching 10+ goals in a side’s first eight games of a season in the competition, with the Norwegian himself already responsible for the first two (6th game in 2022-23, 5th game in 2024-25).

Everton – Iliman Ndiaye

Iliman Ndiaye scored a crucial penalty against Palace to spark Everton’s eventual comeback. The Senegal international is the Toffees leading league scorer in David Moyes’ second spell with nine goals.

He has also now converted all three of the Premier League penalties he’s taken for Everton, with the Toffees scoring from 11 of their last 12 spot kicks in the competition.

MATCH PREDICTION – MANCHESTER CITY WIN

City walk into the Etihad Stadium as heavy favourites for Saturday's clash.

The hosts are unbeaten in their last 16 Premier League meetings with Everton (W13 D3), since a 0-4 defeat at Goodison Park in January 2017. Only against Fulham (20), West Brom (19), and West Ham (19) are the Citizens currently on a longer unbeaten run in the competition.

Across 2025, the hosts are averaging more points-per-game in the Premier League than any other side (2.04 – 53 points from 26 matches). They are the league’s top scorers this calendar year (55 goals) and have picked up the joint-most wins (16, level with Liverpool).

Everton, meanwhile, are winless in their last 14 away games against City (D6 L8), since a 2-1 victory in December 2010 during David Moyes’ first spell in charge.

But the Toffees have reason to be optimistic as well, having won six of their last 10 Premier League games, as many as their previous 27 beforehand.

They have also won four of their last seven away league matches (L3), after having only won three of their previous 26 prior to this (D10 L13).

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Manchester City – 65.9%

Draw – 18.5%

Everton – 15.6%