Guardiola eyes rest for ‘exhausted’ City stars

Pep Guardiola is hoping two rare free midweeks will refresh his “exhausted” Manchester City squad for the Premier League title run-in after beating Fulham 3-0 on Wednesday.

City cut the gap on leaders Arsenal to three points ahead of the Gunners’ trip to Brentford on Thursday.

Antoine Semenyo, Nico O’Reilly and Erling Haaland struck in 15 first-half minutes as City built on the momentum gained from a dramatic late fightback to win at Liverpool on Sunday.

“One of the best (performances) of the season, especially after Anfield for our experience there, in an important, emotional game,” said Guardiola.

“The next one is always tricky. We were lucky we were home.”

Guardiola substituted Haaland at half-time and replaced Bernardo Silva and Rodri early in the second half.

City and are still involved in four competitions. But after the visit of League Two Salford in the FA Cup on Saturday, they have two free midweeks to prepare for Premier League games against Newcastle and Leeds before the end of the month.

“Bernardo was exhausted, Rodri was exhausted. He (Rodri) didn’t lose one ball and then in the second half he lost 10 balls,” added Guardiola.

“Now we have Salford then we need to not see each other and rest. We have an incredibly tough schedule, like Arsenal, and we will have a midweek off.

“It’s been so tough and with a lot of injuries. Salford and then we need two, three, four or five days off.”