Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has stated that his side being title favourites "means nothing", ahead of The Citizen's opening clash with Brighton & Hove Albion.

I was confident before

As one of the most successful football managers in the new millennium, Guardiola will have been disappointed that he didn't pick up a piece of silverware for the first time in his managerial career in his first season in England.

The Catalan has looked to rectify that by spending big in the summer transfer window, nearly in the excess of £200million, and City have backed that spending up in pre-season winning their last three matches.

Many have picked the club as their favourites to lift the league title come next May 2018, but Guardiola stated that the same prediction came at the beginning of last season and that it has happened again ahead of the new season "means nothing".

“Last season at my first press conference," Guardiola told his pre-match press conference. "We were favourites, so nothing has changed."

“I was confident then too,” the coach admitted. "We were favourites last season and missed out by 15 points."

Guardiola added: "So being favourites this season means nothing."

There is more transfers to come

City certainly haven't let up in the transfer window with numerous players going in and out of the Etihad Stadium in the summer months, with a number of familiar faces been replaced by a new roster of new faces.

They got the ball rolling with Bernardo Silva which was quickly followed by the signings of Ederson, Kyle Walker, Danilo and Benjamin Mendy, everyone bar Mendy are expected to make their professional debuts at the Amex Stadium and Guardiola stated that there is still "more transfers" to come with 20 days to go.

"There is still 20 days left and there will be more transfers," he confirmed. "Hopefully, next season I'll be here, and now we're not going to spend how we have spent this season I assure you that."

"Next season, for the next three or four years," the 46-year-old stated. "Manchester City will sign one, two, maybe three players but we are not going to do what happened this season."

"We spent," the coach said. "But all the teams spent."

"We did it earlier," Guardiola concluded. "We are lucky because would be more expensive now. The club was clever like that because we anticipated what we needed."

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About the author
Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.