There's an evident mutual respect between Eddie Howe and Pep Guardiola - and the Manchester City boss has again taken the opportunity to throw praise at the Newcastle United and their hard-working style of play.

It has been a testing period for the Spaniard and his defending champions, with City already tasting defeat six times in the Premier League this term. For context, Guardiola's side only lost three in the entirety of the 2023/24 campaign.

City's rout over Ipswich Town over the weekend saw them leapfrog Newcastle in the table, on goal difference, as the battle for the top four begins to heat up. However, the Etihad outfit did taste defeat, again, in midweek as they threw away a two-goal lead to lose 4-2 against Paris Saint-Germain.

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Speaking before the Champions League clash, Guardiola appeared to take slight offence to a question regarding his team 'fighting' through their recent, uncharacteristic rough patch - while he also took the time to praise Newcastle and Howe for their 'modern' brand of football.

"We didn't fight properly because we were not in the rhythm we should have been. Modern football these days is the way Bournemouth play, Newcastle play, Brighton play, Liverpool play," Guardiola told TNT Sports.

"Like we were [used to be]. It's modern football. It's not positional. You have to rise to the rhythm and we could not. We didn't have the players. Arsenal, Madrid, every team has had injuries. When you play every three days. The teams that play one game a week, it's a another story. That doesn't count.

"It counts when you play every three or four days. It's never happened before but it has made me reflect, when it happens in the future we have to have a bigger squad."

City have had their injury issues this season, losing the likes of Rodri, Oscar Bobb and Nathan Ake of late to serious issues. However, their struggles in the treatment room pale into insignificance when compared to Newcastle's horror show of this time last year.

At one point Howe was missing an entire XI of first-team stars as the club battled on four fronts. This time around, with the help of performance director James Bunce, Newcastle have managed to dramatically decrease their injury issues.