City will compete on several fronts once again this term as Guardiola may copy Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti by allowing his players to have time off during the campaign to prevent burnout.

Guardiola said: "Last season we could not win at Stamford Bridge so this is good news. The bad news is we still have 65, 70 games left."

Asked about Ancelotti's idea, the coach added: "Maybe. I read it and if Carlo says it, maybe we have to pay attention and we follow him. Maybe in some moments, when a player plays a lot, we give him [a chance] to go home, not be in the training session and then come back.

"If [in your head] it doesn't work and you are tired, forget about it. You cannot sustain [performance]. You have to have the desire to be here, to still enjoy playing football, enjoy the training sessions, to be in the locker room together.

"When this happens, you can demand everything. Without it, when they are tired because of season after season, games after games, Euros, World Cups from all of them. The body and the mindset, it's enough. When you have that feeling, go home, we'll play with the academy. We'll play with other players. It doesn't matter. Otherwise, it's not positive."

City started the defence of their Premier League title with a 2-0 win over Chelsea at the weekend and Guardiola was delighted with his team's efforts with their players having had various amounts of preparation following the international tournaments during the summer.

He said: "I really didn't expect it, I know what these guys can do, but the first day and lack of training. It is good to start with a win for the confidence.

"We try to prepare the game, we had two or three days to prepare, but we solved this lack of many things with our commitment. Everyone was at their maximum and this was enough."