Guardiola reveals that De Bruyne is benched to ensure his fitness

Man City manager Pep Guardiola has revealed that Kevin De Bruyne is on the bench for the clash against Norwich to ensure his fitness ahead of a challenging schedule.

As a result, and with the season truly starting to get busy with the Champions League and Carabao Cup participation beginning, Guardiola has opted to rest De Bruyne and started Ilkay Gundogan in his place.

"I trust a lot with Gundogan. Gundogan is an incredible important player for us," Guardiola told Sky Sports prior to kick-off.

"And we start the part of the season where everybody - not everybody because always there are players who don't play too much - but important players they have to play and they cannot play the same level during 10 or 11 months.

"Kevin he was incredible pre-season, he was incredible in pre-season, but he played two games in the national team and my experience says that, for example Pjanic Juventus is injured, Modric Madrid is injured, and what happened last season with Kevin I'd prefer 20, 25 minutes in the second half at an incredible level.

"In three, four games we have a tough game, a long trip to Ukraine in the Champions League then just three days after the Watford game, and everybody has to play that.