PEP Guardiola has hailed Newcastle United as an "extraordinary" team and says the Magpies have signed "perfect players that are perfect for the way they play".
And ahead of Newcastle's visit to the Etihad, Guardiola has issued a passionate rallying cry to Manchester City's supporters, who he says have a huge role to play on Saturday night.
Guardiola has made clear his frustration at the scheduling of the game, with the Spaniard of the belief that the match should have taken place on Sunday or Monday after City won the UEFA Super Cup in Athens against Sevilla last Wednesday.
But he's now calling on his players to rise to the challenge against the table-topping Magpies, who are on a high after their 5-1 opening day hammering of Aston Villa.
"Of course we are ready. Of course," he said.
"We need these type of challenges. Everyone wants to beat us and we need these difficulties for many reasons, many important injuries, the calendar to play with short recovery. It’s a challenge again, to see if we can make a step forward.
"It's never easy, if you want to win you need that. It’s a step to see the team try to do it again in the not ideal situations. In football there are always problems, it’s how you overcome them that define if you’re a good team or not. We need our people more than ever this season.
"We cannot be at the Etihad just looking at how good we are, because of what we’ve done. Tomorrow we need them. 8pm is a good time. We need the supporters from the first minute to the end against an extraordinary team.
"They continue to do well, they bought perfect players that are perfect for the way they play. Where we don't arrive hopefully the people help us to get it.
"Tomorrow we need the Etihad Stadium full. Stay with us, please, we are not in our best moment. Stay there in the bad moments. We need their support. It’s the first time we’re together since the FA Cup final vs [Manchester] United and Champions League final vs Inter Milan. Against Sevilla. Hopefully we can celebrate together during the game."
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Following a late night in Athens on Wednesday and the journey home, Guardiola said his players would not train on Friday but instead focus on recovery with massage and sessions in the pool.
He said: "Every day we’ll arrive in the training centre and see the four trophies in front of us. Wow, how nice is that? How difficult is that? We love it.
"Now we have a big big problem. Especially for this game but in general. Every manager would say the same in my position. We went to bed at 4am in Greece, arrived here late, today we cannot train – everyone is in the pool, massage – we don’t have time. We’d love one more day.
"Okay, we accept that this is the challenge. It’s why we won: we overcome these kinds of positions in winter. We always had less time to recover between games in Boxing Day. A physical team is Newcastle, we have to be careful. This defines the big teams. When everything is comfortable this is not the point. When we play in Newcastle this cannot happen but we play at home. At home I want to see our crowd making a lot of noise. We need them more than ever."
Having scored City's equaliser in Athens in midweek, Cole Palmer looks set to start against Newcastle in the absence of Kevin De Bruyne, who could be out for up to five months with a hamstring injury.
De Bruyne is due to go under the knife in his native Belgium after pulling up early in City’s Premier League opener at Burnley last Friday.
John Stones has been added to the injury list for Saturday's game after sustaining a muscular injury in training, while Bernardo remains out through illness, but Guardiola expressed optimism that Ruben Dias could return after missing the Super Cup final.
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