Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted that he has been "surprised" with how well his side have started the new season.
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss has won all three of his matches in charge of the Citizens so far, scoring 10 goals in the process and moving to the top of the Premier League table.
Guardiola praised the intelligence of his players having been able to adapt to his new philosophy, but insists that there is plenty of room for more improvement.
"Yeah. I don't know what would have happened had we not been able to win the games. I can assure something, my players always run. And after we have to try to play as good as possible, to achieve the result, to win the games. But first is play good and to play good you have to run and I was pretty sure we were able to do that. After, when in some moments we played really good, it's just the quality of the intelligence of these players," he told reporters.
"You can make a training session, you can say this or that. Some understand quickly, some need more time. Most get it quickly. That is why we are a little surprised about how fast, in some moments, we have been in our three games: we played really good. Not for 90 minutes – that is not normal – but how stable they [the players] are. In terms of full games, we have to improve a lot.
"Yesterday I saw the game versus Stoke City again and thought many things we have to improve. But in the short time we have spent together we have made many good things. That is why I am confident that it will remain this way and we will have solidarity and help each other. We can achieve good things."
City will take on Steaua Bucuresti on Wednesday night boasting a 5-0 aggregate lead from the first leg of their Champions League qualifier.
Barney Corkhill
