Manchester City head coach Josep Guardiola spoke about his team’s start in the Champions League against Sevilla.

Guardiola said: “The Stones and Walker are injured. We were lucky that the club signed Manuel Akanji, otherwise we would have been in big trouble. The club quickly took action to attract new players to the position.”

Speaking about his priority this year between the Champions League and the Premier League, he added: “There’s always another chance in sport, it’s a tough competition and I’m proud to be in it.”

Of Halland, he said: “If we rely on Halland alone, we won’t win the Champions League. We’re trying to create goal-scoring opportunities for him. We convinced him to join us because we didn’t have enough strikers and he was trying to get into our style of play and adapt well.”

He concluded: “I understand everyone talking about Erling, but we don’t win or lose just because of him. He has great qualities and is able to solve some problems, but if we don’t play well, we won’t win matches.”

Roland Hobeika.