Luton boss urges his players to force Pep Guardiola's 'winning machine' out of their comfort zone

Luton boss Rob Edwards has urged his players to do all they can to force the ‘winning machine’ that is Manchester City out of their comfort zone when the Premier League champions head to Kenilworth Road tomorrow afternoon.

Pep Guardiola’s side arrive in Bedfordshire for Sky Super Sunday clash on the back of a campaign in which they won the Premier League and Champions League, also landing the FA Cup as well when beating Manchester United as well.

They have found things slightly tougher this term though, currently fourth in the table, six points behind leaders Arsenal, who claimed a last-gasp 4-3 victory against the Hatters in midweek.

Charged with trying to engineer a second home win of the season, against quite possibly the best team in the division, asked just how Town can go about doing it, Edwards said: “We try and play to our strengths, we make the players aware of theirs, their many, many strengths.

"I think the bottom line is we don’t want it to be a comfortable day. We want to try and get them out of their comfort zone if we can and if we allow City to play the game and have complete control which they can do and have done to loads and loads of teams, then it can be a really difficult day. It’s going go be a really difficult day anyway, but we are going to try and play our way, try and play to our strengths and not allow them to have the game they want.

“I don't want to give too much away now, we want to be brave, we want to be aggressive, but we also need to be clever and think whilst the game is going on as well. If you run around like headless chickens, they'll find the space and hurt you, so it’s finding the balance, we’ve got to try and think as well as just running around hard.

“There’s a number of ways to try and go against City, I’m hopeful we can pick the right one. We’ve got to try and retain a threat, got to make them know that they’ve got a couple of weapons here and that’s important. We don't want it to be comfortable, any teams wants that, but if this team is comfortable then you’re in trouble.

“I don’t think they’ve got many weakness and I’m certainly not going to talk about any now and embarrass myself. I just think they’ve got strength in every single area, they're going to get back to winning ways, we just hope it's not this weekend. We’re going to be doing everything we can to get something from the game.”

City will head to Luton on the back of an indifferent run of results themselves, without a win in four games, having drawn 4-4 with Chelsea, 1-1 with Liverpool and 3-3 against Spurs, before a 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa on Thursday night.

That was with Edwards in attendance at his old club too, but he wasn’t paying any real attention to the perceived ‘mini-crisis’ that some have said Pep Guardiola’s side are currently in.

He continued: “I went to the game the other night, I was really impressed with Villa, I thought they were outstanding. They did deserve the win in the end, which is very rare you can say that against a Manchester City team, but I expect it to be a little bit different, one or two players coming in and it will be a little bit of a different team.

"When they’re at their best, I don’t think there’s anyone better. Maybe the team we played the other night will have something to say about that, but there’s some outstanding teams in this league and we’ve already gone up against the majority of them now, when this lot are fully at it, they’re really good!

“I’m just excited that we’re playing them and the whole football club should be as well. Look at what they’ve done in recent years, they're a winning machine, they are. I know they've had a few difficult results, but the three previous games before Villa they could have easily won all those games as well.

"They were creating big, big chances, and just didn’t for whatever reason. We’re going to expect the best Manchester City and that’s what we’re preparing for, so I don’t think the recent run of not winning, I’m not going to say not performing well, not winning, doesn’t make a difference at all.”

Meanwhile, after a bitterly disappointing result themselves in midweek as Luton lost a second game in a row having lost 3-1 at Brentford last Saturday, Edwards doesn’t expect his players to be moping around following the reverses.

He added: “The option is we have to as if we don’t then Manchester City can punish you can’t they. If we don’t re-energise, refocus and get ourselves back on it, we’re going to be struggling and the players will know that.

"This group are strong, we know the areas we can improve and get better, but there’s a lot there and we’ve shown a lot of people that we’re a decent team, we’re not just to be laughed out or ‘what are they doing here?’ We’re fighting and we’re going to have to do that again on Sunday.”