'He played the best game of the season' - Guardiola hails Mendy performance

Pep Guardiola has told Benjamin Mendy he will have to fight for his first team place with Angelino and Aleks Zinchenko, despite hailing the Frenchman's display against Dinamo Zagreb as his best of the season.

This was Mendy's ninth start of the season for City and Guardiola felt it was his best performance yet as the 25-year-old continues to find his way back to form after two serious knee injuries.

"He played the best game of the season, really well," Guardiola said. "There are some things which are normal when you don't play but he did really well."

Zinchenko began this season as City's first choice left-back but this was his first City appearance since the start of October after he suffered his own knee injury.

He came on in the second half in Zagreb in midfield but will expect to be challenging again for a left-back spot soon, although Guardiola has given no guarantees to any of the three players battling for a starting role.

"They have to fight between each other and they can decide," Guardiola said of the battle between Mendy, Zinchenko and Angelino.

"Angelino played incredibly well, especially at Anfield. We know the quality from Aleks, and Mendy has the quality when he is fit and when his head in the right position he's an extraordinary player."

City had nothing to play for against Dinamo Zagreb, but they still turned in a professional display to come away with a 4-1 victory, which delighted Guardiola .

The performance went down well with Atalanta, who completed a remarkable rescue act to qualify in second thank to their 3-0 victory in Donetsk. The Serie A side lost their first three games and took just one point from their fourth game, but have still managed to finish second on seven points.

"We didn't play for points, we played for ourselves and it's important to finish in that way," Guardiola said.

"There were no injuries, no yellow cards, we make 75 good minutes, the players who played regularly played incredibly well.

"Now we focus on the Premier League and see what condition we arrive in February. Atalanta had no points after three games but go through in second. This competition is weird but hopefully we arrive in good spirits in February ready to face the best teams in Europe."