'I adore my players' - Pep Guardiola issues glowing Man City verdict amid 'super men' claim

Pep Guardiola described his Manchester City players as 'super men' following their 1-0 win over Bournemouth at the Vitaly Stadium. The champions were forced to dig deep at times on the south coast with Bournemouth piling on the pressure and looking to find a breakthrough.

But City did enough to claim all three points with Phil Foden's first half strike being the difference between the two sides. The result takes City up to within a point of the Premier League summit and leaders Liverpool, who are in Carabao Cup action this weekend at Wembley Stadium.

Guardiola's side, who have played six games in just under three weeks, are now 17 games unbeaten in all competitions and with Liverpool and Arsenal to face next month, few would be betting against them going top before too long.

"A lot," Guardiola smiled when asked by Sky Sports what he liked about City's performance on the south coast. "Everything.

"I adore my players, they are super men. They had seven days to prepare that game, we have always less. People say you play in the same conditions in the Premier League. No, no, we don't. We play much more games than the rest. It's a tough place to come, they are a fantastic team, all the time they go, they go, they go.

"I adore them, my players are so good. I know people say they earn a lot of money but it's not all that, it's too much. The business must go on and it's becoming more competition so, they surprise me every time, they have an incredible character and they are so competitive even when they are tired. I love it.

"The last 10 or 15 minutes were really tough, they pushed it. People believe that if you win the treble you have to win every game 0-5, that is not the reality but we are surviving and hopefully we can have soon one week off to give days off and refresh our minds and our legs."

He added: "[In three days] we go to Luton again. They are super men honestly, I know I have been not long as a manager career but they are super men. The mentality. Our fans have to be so proud of these guys."