Manchester City is only two points behind Arsenal, coming from a five-match winning streak in Premier League, and Pep Guardiola wants to stay in the fight during the Christmas period, where the league doesn't stop. While there's only one match on Boxing Day, Manchester City returns to action on Saturday December 27, against Nottingham Forest.
To make sure that his players are fit, Pep Guardiola said that they will weigh their players to check if they are fit enough to play. The manager could make technical decisions if one player has eaten too much nougat...
"The moment they arrive after three days, I want to see how they come back. They can eat but I want to control them. Imagine one player and now he's perfect but he will arrive with three kilos more. He will be in Manchester, he will not travel to Nottingham Forest", Guardiola said.
According to BBC Sport, Guardiola already exiled some players from first-team training until they met weight targets back in 2016. The Spaniard is known to be very strict about fitness levels, and once he had to apologise after saying that City midfielder Kalvin Phillips was "overweight" on his return from the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
However, Guardiola understands the importance of having a break, even if it will be shorter: "The schedule is so tight and the players have to forget. The moment of the game they will be fresh in the legs."