Man City players eye ‘another treble’ vs Atletico Madrid ahead of Arsenal showdown

The talking points as Manchester City take on Atletico Madrid in Seoul in their final pre-season friendly before the Community Shield.

Such is the way with pre-season friendlies, sponsors will never miss an opportunity for a photo, with a trophy presentation often following the warm-up games, especially in foreign countries. With Manchester City beating Yokohama and Bayern Munich in Japan, they have ‘lifted’ two further trophies after lifting the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in their previous five outings.

Behind-the-scenes footage after the Bayern game on Wednesday showed City players embracing the formalities of the post-match presentation on tour, joking to each other that they are one more pre-season win away from another treble. Phil Foden and Kalvin Phillips in particular enjoyed the idea of Sunday’s clash against Atletico Madrid in Seoul being an opportunity to add a pre-season treble to the real thing.

With the Community Shield and UEFA Super Cup sandwiching the Premier League opener at Burnley when City return from South Korea, City could lift a trophy after eight of their eleven games between the home game against Chelsea in May and Super Cup vs Sevilla next month. The pre-season trophies will be forgotten as soon as City return home – yet the desire of City players to win everything and anything up for grabs can only be a good indicator of the mentality going into the new season. They are currently on a run of one defeat in their last 30 and want to extend that record.