Pep Guardiola said new Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi will have a massive impact in English football, as he prepares his Manchester City side to face the Seagulls on Saturday.
Guardiola wasn't in a particularly talkative mood in his pre-match press conference, with much of the questioning surrounding the fallout from last week's defeat by Liverpool. Whenever he was asked about the controversies from that game, he made it clear he would prefer to focus on Brighton.
And they arrive at the Etihad under new manager De Zerbi, who is yet to win a game since replacing Graham Potter. However, Guardiola has a good relationship with the Italian, and insisted he will get it right at the Amex Stadium.
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"We have seen [each other] two or three times, we mainly talk about football," Guardiola said of the latest new addition to the Premier League. "Really happy he's here. I just saw the last two games, already they are playing the way he wants to play. His impact in England will be massive in the future. I congratulated him by phone when he was appointed but we haven't spoken since."
Expanding on why he is confident De Zerbi will be a success in the Premier League, Guardiola explained: "The way he plays, he comes from Italy, they play an incredible way, they have success as a country and club teams. He plays completely different, we expect both sides is good.
"A team like Sassuolo is an incredible example, no matter the quality you have, if you believe in something, 100 per cent the way you want to play, you can do it. He's the biggest example for all the managers. It doesn't matter results, what matters is the way you believe, the way you want to see your team play football.
"In every place he has been. In Brighton he took over the team from Graham Potter who did an incredible job. They're so dynamic without the ball, with the ball incredible players like MacAllister, Dunk, March, Gross, Trossard. All have incredible quality in small spaces. On the move. You see with the ball already what he has done."
Guardiola also dismissed the idea that City have an advantage after seeing their scheduled midweek game postponed before this fixture, noting that most opponents they play often have the same rest if they are not competing in Europe.
"One advantage in seven years, not a problem," he said. "We are used to playing until the last stages of competitions, all the teams who don't play in Europe have advantage over teams who play in Europe. If you take this point, they are better than us. We rest to prepare the game. Normally we play games where others have more time, we never complain. When we play Arsenal the other teams will rest."
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