Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City could claim the Treble this season but the manager understands how tough it will be given only Manchester United have achieved the feat among English clubs.
City lead the Premier League from Liverpool by a point with nine games left, travel to Southampton for Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final and were paired with Atlético Madrid in Friday’s draw for the Champions League last eight. Liverpool, who have won the Carabao Cup, could complete a clean sweep of all four competitions.
In 2017-18 Guardiola’s side became the first to win all three domestic trophies. Asked about the Treble, he said: “If United did it once, then it happened and someone else can do it. People said we could not win three domestic titles ever, it was impossible, and we did it. So when it happens, another team can do it. It would not be easy but you can do it, of course.
“In September, October, November, it is more difficult but when there are two months left and still you can be there to win the titles, yeah it’s possible. On the other hand, it’s happened once so that shows how difficult it is.”
Guardiola brushed aside whether City would be motivated to win the FA Cup, considered the least important of the three trophies. “How do you ask me this?” he said. “We show in these six years [with him as manager] how we play every game like it’s the last game of our lives. We respect the FA Cup greatly. It’s great. We know how difficult it will be away at Southampton but I trust my players a lot.
“I am a manager who trusts these players to try to win every competition. So we will try to be who we are, like we did, for example, against Southampton and Crystal Palace even though we dropped points against them. I want to do it with these players – I would not change one single player to try and do all of these things in these next two months ahead.”
