Pep Guardiola is looking forward to helping Manchester City achieve what no team has managed to do in the last 10 years by retaining the Premier League title.
The champions of Spain, Germany, Italy and France have all won consecutive titles in the last four seasons.
Indeed Bayern Munich, Juventus, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain have each done so on multiple occasions over the last decade, but you have to go back to 2008/09 to find the last time an English team did so.
Since Manchester United completed a hat-trick of titles that season, Chelsea, Man City, Man Utd, and Leicester City have stopped another club from claiming back-to-back titles.
But Guardiola has charged his players with bucking the trend, after they won the PL Trophy in 2017/18 after a record-breaking campaign.
"There are a lot of strong teams in the Premier League," said Guardiola. "Even when you play the, with all respect, 'lower teams' they are so strong defensively. It’s completely different to the leagues I lived before.
"I'm looking forward [to it]. In the last 10 years no team was able to make back-to-back so that means how difficult it will be, but that is the challenge."
