Pep Guardiola insisted that the upcoming World Cup had no bearing on Manchester City's surprise defeat to Brentford, despite previously admitting some players would have one eye on Qatar this week.
16 of City's players are heading to the World Cup, and ten of them made up Guardiola's line-up against Brentford. Even though Guardiola accepted some players may be wary of avoiding injury in this final fixture before joining their countries, he told national FAs that he wouldn't be resting anyone this weekend.
Guardiola's team selection backed that up, but the performance of those players picked also supported his comments that some could be less committed to this fixture as injury could jeopardise their World Cup involvement. However, Guardiola insisted that it was City's tactics that let him down rather than any World Cup factor.
