Pep Guardiola is confident his Man City side can secure a hat-trick of Premier League titles

Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City are in a better frame of mind to fight for three consecutive titles than when they tried to complete the same feat in 2019-20.

City could not recover after quickly falling behind Liverpool that season and Guardiola suggested on Friday it was down to a slip in standards.

The manager insisted that he has witnessed renewed vigour from his squad as they aim to become only the fifth club in history to lift three successive English top-flight titles.

Pep Guardiola feels his team is well equipped to win a third Premier League title in a row

‘After back-to-back Premier League titles I said I wanted to take a look at how we came back in pre-season,’ Guardiola said.

‘I was curious this year, about the smell in training sessions and in pre-season. Since day one, I like what I’ve seen.

‘We were quite consistent in these five games. We don’t change our patterns much. It gives confidence to the team.’

City can go top with victory at Aston Villa on Saturday, buoyed by the prolific Erling Haaland, who is gunning to become the first player since Liverpool’s Jack Balmer in 1946 to score three consecutive top-flight hat-tricks.

Guardiola said he was curious to see how his players responded to the challenge of achieving the feat when they returned in pre-season