Guardiola is wary ahead of the Man Utd match.

According to manager Pep Guardiola, the clash against Man Utd in the Premier League this weekend will be very different from what Man City experienced in their 6-2 victory over Luton Town in the FA Cup.

"The game against Man Utd will be completely different," Guardiola said after the victory at Kenilworth Road on February 27th. "It will be very difficult. Man Utd's defense is different from Luton's and they have experienced players. Now, we will have two days off. Everyone needs to be relaxed mentally and physically. Then we will have two days to prepare."

The match in the 27th round of the Premier League on March 3rd took place at the Etihad Stadium. This was the beginning of a series of five matches that could decide Guardiola's team's chances of defending their title this season. In the next four matches, Man City will face Liverpool, Brighton, Arsenal, and Aston Villa. A common thread among these five opponents is that they are all currently in the Top 7.

Man City are currently second in the Premier League with 59 points after 26 rounds, one point behind Liverpool. Meanwhile, Man Utd are sixth with 44 points.

Guardiola was pleased after Manchester City's 6-2 victory over Luton Town in the fifth round of the FA Cup on February 27th at Kenilworth Stadium. Photo: Man City

The 6-2 victory over Luton in the fifth round of the FA Cup was a crucial boost for Man City. Erling Haaland regained his confidence by scoring five goals, while Kevin De Bruyne impressed with four assists for his Norwegian teammate.

Guardiola praised Luton's 4-0 win against Brighton at Kenilworth, but he also took pride in how well the Man City players read Luton's game, especially the link-up play between Haaland and De Bruyne. "Erling needs a teammate with vision, quality, and generosity," Guardiola added. "Kevin is a less selfish player. If he can't score, he'll create. Kevin needs Erling's movement. Kevin and Erling are great together, but everyone contributes."

In this match, Haaland opened the scoring in the 3rd minute, tapping in a low cross from De Bruyne. He then scored again in the 18th and 40th minutes, both times finding the net from one-on-one situations after long through passes from his Belgian teammate. After Jordan Clark scored two consecutive goals for Luton, the Man City attacking duo shone together again: De Bruyne passed to Haaland, who fired a shot into an empty net to make it 4-2 in the 55th minute.

Haaland only needed three more minutes to score his fifth goal. This time, after a pass from Bernardo Silva, he shot the ball past the goalkeeper and into the net. Mateo Kovacic sealed the tennis-set victory for Man City with a long-range shot in the 72nd minute.

This is the second time Haaland has scored five goals in a single match for Man City, the first being in the 7-0 win against Leipzig in the second leg of the 2022-2023 Champions League round of 16. This season, Haaland has scored 27 goals in 29 matches across all competitions.

Thanh Quy (according to MEN )

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