Man City’s run of away fixtures a ‘privilege’, Pep Guardiola claims

The Premier League champions face Chelsea, PSG and Liverpool on the road in the space of eight days

Pep Guardiola is looking forward to the challenge of facing three of Europe’s top teams in a week (Getty Images)

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said his side’s run of tricky away fixtures against Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool is a “privilege”.

City face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday in a repeat of the Champions League final before travelling to PSG in a heavyweight Champions League group-stage match in a quick turnaround on Tuesday.

The Premier League champions then have four days of rest before they play Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday 3 October in the final match before the international break.

Thomas Tuchel has won his first three meetings against City as Chelsea manager, including the 1-0 Champions League final victory over Guardiola’s side in Porto at the end of last season.

The Blues are joint-top of the Premier League after five matches, having already faced trips to Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham, and Guardiola said his side are looking forward to the challenge of kicking off their tough week at Stamford Bridge.

“It’s so nice, what a privilege,” Guardiola said. “One game at a time, we travel to London, and after we prepare the next one.

“We prepare the game like Southampton, like before, try to read what they are, what we’ve done in recent games against Chelsea.

“Every game is a new challenge, to improve and do it better. It’s not a final, it’s completely different.

“The final was a tight game, we lost, and [2-1 defeat in the] Premier League was already done - we were almost champions.

“We’ll learn from these three games, it’s one more game in the 38 we have in the Premier League.”

City were held to a 0-0 draw against Southampton last Saturday and were beaten on their previous visit to London in the Premier League, a 1-0 defeat by Tottenham on the opening weekend.