Pep Guardiola challenges Manchester City to prove they are 'the best team in English history'

City will lift the Premier League trophy next weekend but Guardiola now wants them to seal their legacy by putting themselves in the history books

Manchester City are on the verge of some significant Premier League records (Getty)

Pep Guardiola wants Manchester City to prove that they are “the best team in English history” by smashing the Premier League record points total.

After winning 4-1 at West Ham United this afternoon, City are on 93 points, one win away from breaking Chelsea’s 95-point record, set in 2004-05. They still have three games left, against Huddersfield, Brighton and Southampton, and are aiming to break the 100-point record. They are only one goal behind Chelsea’s Premier League goals record of 103, set in 2009-10, meaning Guardiola’s side are heading for an unprecedented double of records this year.

City will lift the Premier League trophy next weekend but Guardiola now wants them to seal their legacy by putting themselves in the history books.

“I'm happy that next Sunday we will receive the Premier League title,” he said, “and [have] the chance to be the best team in all the history in England, [with] the most points. And of course we are going to try to do it next Sunday.”

While Guardiola accepted that even the records his City team set will one day be broken, he said that records were a more objective measure of their success than subjective criteria of style. “The numbers we have, and the numbers will be broken and the numbers will disappear,” he said. “Always the numbers we are going to achieve, once will be broken. But it will not be easy. They will have to play good to break the records we are going to break.”

“Numbers are facts. But the way we played, OK, some people say: ‘ ‘we enjoy watching that team during one season’. And for some people will say they didn’t like it. It depends on the people. The numbers are there, will be there, hopefully, if we achieve one more victory, we will have 96.”

Guardiola said that his team are not just motivated by numbers now, but also by the simply enjoyment of playing football. “First of all, they like to play football, they are professionals,” he said. “Like you like to make articles, they like to play football. They want to play, and the guys on the bench want to play. And that is the most important thing. It’s a job, [but] they are amateurs in terms of how they enjoy training and playing.”

City ran riot at the London Stadium (Getty)

Finally Guardiola is motivated by improvement. He knows there is much more to come from this City team, as good as this season has been, which is why he is still so motivated to keep coaching and improving the team. And ironing out mistakes he saw today.

“Football is not a finished business, never, never,” he said. “We can be more clinical in front of goal. The last five, 10 minutes of the first half was not good, After 65 minutes we were not hungry enough to attack and score another one. Individual mistakes. Our full backs did not control the players inside. If I feel we cannot do better, no sense, it’s already done. Football is never finished. Always you can do something good.”