Pep Guardiola has thanked Manchester City for giving him the time to mould his formidable Premier League frontrunners and taken time to count how the team has improved dramatically under two seasons of his tenure.
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss arrived in Manchester to much fanfare for the 2016-17 campaign but, after an encouraging start, City faded from the title picture around the turn of the year and finished the season trophy-less.
Their strong form appears built to last this time around, with Arsenal visiting the Etihad Stadium on Sunday to take on a side who have won nine and drawn one of their 10 top-flight matches to date.
It has been a similar story in the Champions League, with Wednesday’s thrilling 4-2 win at Napoli preserving City’s 100 per cent record and booking a place in the knockout stages with two Group F games to spare.
“Last season, we were not able to win one game away in the Champions League and this season we have won two, and hopefully against Shakhtar Donetsk we can do so again,” Guardiola told Sky Sports.