Nathan Ake is looking to stay in the Manchester City team for as long as possible after making the most of his opportunity in pre-season.
Ake was the subject of strong interest this summer from former club Chelsea, whose chances of signing him were talked up only for the club to fail to meet City's valuation. Instead, the Dutch defender headed off on a pre-season tour with Pep Guardiola as one of just two centre-backs given Aymeric Laporte's injury and the failure of John Stones to meet entry requirements for the United States.
Ake started both friendlies on the trip and then retained his place in the starting line-up for the Community Shield alongside Ruben Dias, despite Stones linking back up with the first team squad in Manchester. A week on, for the opening Premier League game at West Ham, Guardiola kept faith with Dias and Ake again.
Also read: Kevin De Bruyne issues Man City warning after Erling Haaland brace
Despite a tricky start, the team took control of the match at the London Stadium and left with three points and a clean sheet. Ake, who joined from Bournemouth two years ago, feels in a good rhythm after his pre-season and is aiming to keep his run going.
"Hopefully I can," he said. "As a player you want to play as many games as possible.
"I'm happy that I started this game and hopefully I can continue that. Obviously the World Cup is coming soon so you have to perform for your club to go to the World Cup but at the moment I'm fully focused on City.
"This start is what we wanted. The first few minutes were very tough, we needed to keep our cool, keep the ball and try and play our game and I think we did."
City have a week between each of their next three fixtures — Bournemouth, Newcastle and Crystal Palace in the league — so there is less of a need for Guardiola to rotate his team as there will be when the midweek games start up.
ALSO READ:
