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Rob DawsonCorrespondent
Pep Guardiola says Manchester City are missing a goalscoring “weapon” after missing out on Harry Kane.
While Manchester United signed Cristiano Ronaldo and Chelsea landed Romelu Lukaku during the summer transfer window, Kane remained at Tottenham Hotspur rather than moving to the Etihad Stadium.
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City will line up against Chelsea and Lukaku at Stamford Bridge on Saturday in the first meeting between the teams since the Champions League final.
“We don’t have this weapon that other teams have like Chelsea, United or Tottenham or other teams so we have to use what we can do as a team,” Guardiola told a news conference on Friday. “We don’t have a player [who can] score 25 league goals for himself so we have to do it as a team. This is what we will try this season.”
Chelsea finished 19 points behind City last season but Guardiola believes Lukaku can help Thomas Tuchel make up the difference. But despite missing out on Kane and losing Sergio Aguero to Barcelona on a free transfer, Guardiola insists City are still capable of reclaiming the Premier League title.
“I’m not going to deny what a player Romelu Lukaku is,” said Guardiola. “The team was already so strong and with him is now stronger. It is a stronger team than last season but this is the challenge. I’m not going to say I’m sad or disappointed for the squad we have.
“We are the champions, we are runners-up in the Champions League, we won the Carabao Cup and made the semi-final of the FA Cup. “When the squad will be fit, I know what we can do because we have done [it for] many years already.
“You will not hear me moaning for one single moment in this season complaining that we don’t have this player.
“We had the privilege to have Sergio for many years. Unfortunately for the last year and a half he was out with injuries and we could not use him much. We survived without him in a good way in the way we played. There are two options that we have right now: complaining or saying we have exceptional players.”