Pep Guardiola has dismissed the notion that Manchester City have been luckier with Covid than their title rivals.
The Blues boss was asked about the way he and his squad have handled the situation, with the Omicron variant causing a welter of postponements for other clubs, and after he had seven first-team players out of action for last week's FA Cup third-round tie at Swindon - when Guardiola himself was absent after testing positive.
Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel said today that City, who his team face at the Etihad tomorrow, have either been fortunate or have handled the Covid and injury situation better.
Tuchel said: “They have dealt better with injuries and Covid. Maybe it’s luck or they do it better. They have had less injuries and less weeks they missed them. They did not suffer from Covid as we did over many weeks, this is the huge difference.”
Ahead of last week's FA Cup third-round tie at Swindon it was revealed that seven first-team players, several elite development squad starlets, and 14 backroom staff were all missing for Covid reasons - including Guardiola himself and assistant Juanma Lillo.
City have a policy of not naming players hit by Covid on grounds of medical confidentiality, but Ederson, John Stones, Aleks Zinchenko, Fernandinho, Jack Grealish, Raheem Sterling and Phil Foden were all absent from the squad that travelled down to Wiltshire.
When asked whether he felt City had handled it better, Guardiola said: "A re you saying here we are smarter than Omicron to come and visit us?
"We had a lot of cases and injuries. We played Aston Villa with 11 first-team players.
"The last six, seven games there are four, five academy players on the bench. We are in the same situation as all other clubs.
"Injuries a bit less because our medical department are incredible. It happens to all clubs, it's around the world, it's not because we are smarter. The virus comes to the bubble, everyone suffers."
Guardiola did not comment on which of the seven players who were missing last week might return tomorrow, but said there have been fresh positive tests.
"Some people are coming, some are positive again," he said. "When you test once, twice, negative you come back. Otherwise not. It happened in all the clubs. We have some new cases, they want privacy so I can't say.
"We are used to handling this situation from a long time, this variant is in our lives. In the past it was the same. Just adapt."
