Pep Guardiola will not be speaking to the media ahead of Manchester City's trip to Tottenham in the Premier League on Saturday, with his assistant Pep Lijnders standing in
Pep Lijnders will take over Manchester City media duties on Friday ahead of their Premier League fixture against Tottenham Hotspur.
Pep Guardiola is unavailable, so his assistant Lijnders will address the press before the squad reconvene on Saturday to continue preparations for another significant Premier League challenge.
It marks the third City press conference that Guardiola has been absent from in the past two months. Kolo Toure addressed journalists last month prior to their Premier League encounter at Crystal Palace, while Lijnders conducted the session following the 10-1 victory over Exeter in the FA Cup Final - a fixture from which Guardiola was suspended after accumulating three yellow cards in domestic competitions.
Guardiola, who appeared at an Act X Palestine event in Barcelona on Thursday evening, is still anticipated to lead the side for their journey to Spurs but cannot attend the scheduled pre-match media briefing. Lijnders will deputise before resuming his customary role as City aim to maintain their pursuit in the Premier League title race.
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A 2-0 triumph over Wolves on Saturday represented City#s first victory in five league matches, and Arsenal's home loss to United means the deficit at the summit has been reduced to four points with 15 fixtures remaining.
The Gunners can extend that advantage once more at Leeds on Saturday, but City have drawn encouragement from Arsenal's failure to pull further clear this month.
"In my experience here in England, Liverpool have won two league titles and we have won six, so I've never have experienced Arsenal winning the league," said captain Bernardo Silva.
"But the truth is that at the moment they're in a better position than us. I've recently said that both teams would still drop points, but unfortunately we started the year in a negative form as we could've gained an emotional advantage and we didn't.
"And then they could've distanced themselves from us even further but they didn't, so they gave us a bit of hope. There's still a lot of games to be played and every season is different. Without a doubt we still have hope and ambition to fight for this Premier League."