City new boy Ilkay Gundogan deputised for Silva in midweek but Guardiola is unsure whether the German is ready for two games in a week, while defender Vincent Kompany definitely remains out.
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Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe admits that his side can not afford to under-perform against Manchester City on Saturday afternoon.
City manager Pep Guardiola said the delay had no adverse effect on his players, quipping: “We were at home, sleeping with our wives”.
“I didn’t know all of the English people here, or the Italian people before I came but they are so professional about their work – our players are in good hands”.
He said: “Their performance against Manchester United last week didn’t suggest they’re crying out for Sergio Aguero”.
“Obviously the Champions League is not easy, but our objective is to try to get where we got last season – the semi-final.
I knew how important this game was”, Guardiola said. “We worked really hard on the preseason and you are still doing every day”.
“Any team can beat you – I feel that”.
But with or without Aguero, Howe believes that City have a team full of champions – and that is what makes them so unsafe.
Barcelona, Madrid or Bayern are the type of teams that are always there.
“To take it to the next level we have to improve a lot”, he said. We can not make something good in the Champions League in the coming years without them. It’s an opportunity to improve.
“We had, thanks to the weather, one more day of regeneration, now we have one less but it is what it is”.
‘Tomorrow at three o’clock we start again.
There were positives all over the field for City, perhaps no more so than the sight of Ilkay Gundogan running midfield on his debut following an offseason move from Borussia Dortmund. “It’s not a big problem but it happened two days ago”. We have to be so proud to play in this competition.
Monaco scored a surprise 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur in their Champions League Group E opener at Wembley Stadium to silence the London club’s record “home” attendance.
‘I saw the game at West Ham and they were unlucky.
“But it’s a good time for us to go and face the best”. When we play against someone like that we have to play to our limits. With 145 goals, the 28-year-old is now just three behind sixth-placed Francis Lee in City’s all-time top goalscoring list.
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“Defensively we need to adjust small details”.
