Kyle Walker warned Manchester City’s rivals that Pep Guardiola’s Premier League champions want to dominate English football.
City celebrated a record-breaking season as they won the Premier League by 19 points ahead of neighbours Manchester United in 2017-18.
It was City’s third Premier League title and first since 2014, and full-back Walker revealed Guardiola’s team are determined to enjoy prolonged dominance in England after opening their defence with a 2-0 win over Arsenal.
“Obviously, he’s [Pep] not striving for [just] one title and we’re not as well – we want more. I don’t want to sound big headed, but we want to dominate English football,” Walker said.
“Every day is a learning day and you can always adjust to different tactics, adjust to different formations and that’s something we need to take on collectively as a group – that’s manager and players – to make sure that we can dominate the English game.”
City are at home to Huddersfield town on Sunday and England international Walker added: “I’ve not just signed here to pick up my first Premier League title and then say ‘OK, I’ll rest on that’.
“I’m hungry for a lot more. There’s a lot of challengers, there are a lot of good teams in the Premier League.
“Even, you look at Everton now, who have spent a lot of money in the transfer window, they’re going to be tough competitors.
“We just see the Premier League is full of surprises. Leicester did it so why can’t anyone else do it? We’ll just have to see.”
Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne is facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a knee injury.
De Bruyne sustained the injury during training on Wednesday and will be fully assessed in the coming days, but he is already on crutches and sources close to the player believe he could be out of action for anywhere between two and three months.
It is believed he has injured the lateral ligament in his knee, a more accurate diagnosis is expected later this week.