A trio of midfielders – Ilkay Gunodgan, Yaya Toure – all feature in today’s media round-up, so let’s dive straight in.
We’ll begin with the former, who was Stateside for this year’s tour announcement, where he has been telling the US media of his ambitions to help City cement their status at the top of world football.
ESPN have the story, in which Gundogan also tells journalist Sam Borden about the advantages of working with Pep Guardiola.
“We have big targets. We have things we want to achieve. We just started, you know, it’s a long process,” read Ilkay’s quotes.
“We want to get better year by year, and we are working on it - to lift up the club to higher levels. If the club is successful, we will be successful as well.
“He (Pep) knows how the players are thinking. He knows what we think, how we react.
“Obviously he has the ability to make everyone better. I’ve never seen a player who gets worse after [working under] Guardiola.”
It is, of course, the international break, which is where our German winger fits into today’s paper talk.
Sky Sports have been analysing Sane and Spurs’ Dele Alli ahead Germany v England tonight, given both players impressive Premier League form.
Indeed, Paul Harrison believes the Blues’ fleet-footed winger will shine on the international stage this week.
He writes: “Since returning to the starting line-up against Tottenham on January 21, Sane has made more appearances and started more games than anyone else for the club, and his return of six goals is bettered only by Sergio Aguero.
“He’s already shown his ‘big-game’ potential by scoring in Schalke’s Champions League win at Real Madrid in March 2015 - his second senior goal - and he’ll be ready for the challenge which awaits on Wednesday night.”
Meanwhile, the restart of domestic action sees City take on Arsenal and Chelsea in back to back away games and Toure has told journalists this is a landmark moment in the season.
The Mirror’s David McDonnell has the story, in which the Ivorian discusses his desire to finish the campaign strongly.
“Arsenal and Chelsea are tough games, but we have the chance to come a little bit closer to the top,” says Toure.
“If we can get points there, it will be brilliant.
“It’s all about the next two weeks. All that’s important now is finishing the season strongly – finishing in the top four – giving the Champions League to the fans again.
“We’ve been very strong away. We have more space and we’re delighted to play in big stadiums because we have the space to play.
“We hope we can take all six points, because this league is so difficult.”
That concludes today’s media round-up, but we’ll be back with more paper talk tomorrow.
