Pep Guardiola has a different feeling as Man City return to Monaco

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola brings his team back to Monaco eight years after they crashed out of the Champions League to the same opposition

The last time Pep Guardiola brought Manchester City to Monaco he was despondent. A manager who had never failed to reach the Champions League semi-finals found the team he was now in charge of were simply happy to have made the knockout stages.

There was no determination to attack their 5-3 advantage, or to fiercely defend it. Instead, uncertainty reigned and it was the team in red and white who ended the night triumphant.

Guardiola left Monaco knowing that his squad needed ripping up, but more important than getting technical players in was getting new recruits who were hungry for the biggest prizes. It was no surprise that the 2017 arrivals included two Monaco players who had dared to dream in reaching the Champions League semi-final and beating Paris Saint-Germain to the French title.

Things did not work out for Benjamin Mendy but Bernardo Silva returns to Monaco as City captain, having won six Premier League titles, the Champions League, the Club World Cup, and every other domestic honour there is in England more than once. Together with Guardiola, Silva is taking responsibility for restoring City's appetite to be the best.

It disappeared last season and City went trophyless for the first time since 2017. For a long time, Guardiola did not appear to have any solution to the team's loss of form - injuries were a significant factor but not the only one - and even at the beginning of this campaign back-to-back Premier League defeats and a chaotic transfer window made them look a mess.

The past few weeks have been encouraging though. Four wins and a draw in all competitions have also seen Erling Haaland score regularly, Phil Foden find his form, Jeremy Doku take his game to new levels, and several others impress.

Gary Neville may be adamant that there are only two teams in the title race and other names are being put forward as favourites for the Champions League. Guardiola cannot do anything about that given the number of false dawns City have had in 2025, but he arrives in Monaco this week with a twinkle in his eye.

"Last season was not good. It's not important [what people think]," he said.

"What is important is if you go through and get better and better you will be a contender but you have to deserve it. We were a contender last season and we finished 23rd.

"Step by step. We made three points against a top side like Napoli, we have to win all the games at home and one or two away. I don't think further than that and Brentford.

"Maybe I will swallow my words but I like many things that I see. We have to improve and make steps forward in our game, not our mentality, but in the way we play we have to make a step forward.

"But we will do it. I'm so positive with that. I'm so obsessed with the team playing better and better."

Monaco will be a decent test for City, if not defining. They cannot be placed in the same bracket as Arsenal or Liverpool, yet they have topped Ligue 1 in its early stages and are definitely at the level of teams that the Blues struggled so badly against in Europe last season.

Guardiola views six points from six as an important marker for the mentality of his players, just as he valued beating Napoli as an improvement on last year's opening draw at home to Inter. The fact that he is still motivated to improve the team is a big plus, especially considering things looked so bleak at Brighton at the end of August.

A City win over Monaco may not move them into being favourites for a trophy this season, but where Guardiola left the Cote d'Azur eight years ago knowing an end was approaching here there are the green shoots of something new.