The City manager said: “We know each other quite well and they know how demanding I am. We’ve had three sunny days in Manchester but we do not relax (for) one second.

“Especially in the areas of the performance of the individuals, we can improve. Every player can improve. Every player feels, ‘I can improve in some details’.

“When every individual player can improve, the team will improve. That’s why always we can do better. That is the target.

“As much as we win and get results, we have to demand and be over the players and say we can do better.

“The moment when I feel that everyone is thinking the job is done, or how good it is, this guy is not going to play.

“I’m so intuitive to know exactly the guys who are not ready to continue what we have to do.”

Overall, City are 27 games unbeaten stretching back to November.

Prior to that, their start to the season had been an indifferent one with points dropped in five of their opening eight Premier League games.

The picture may have changed in City’s favour, but Guardiola is wary of how quickly things can be undone.

He said: “The champion is Liverpool, we are not. To do it we still have to win eight, nine or 10 games and that’s a lot of games.

“There are incredible teams who have struggled for four or five games to win games. That can happen to us too.

“Last season it happened, at the beginning of this season it happened. We were unable to win three games in a row in the first two months.”