Man City's Barcelona getaway: Pep, Phillips and Alvarez set to benefit from team bonding trip

First and foremost, the most important benefactor from the game is the foundation which carries out research into the incurable degenerative neurological condition.

All proceeds from the game will go towards ALS research, on behalf of Unzue, who is a former Barcelona team-mate of Guardiola, and 51,000 tickets have already been sold for the game.

“We go because Barcelona open doors to play a game for an important person in our lives,” Guardiola said. “They invite us to raise money for the battle that he has, and it is an incredible argument for us to be there.”

Even in late August, no one can reasonably predict the current pleasant temperatures in Manchester, so a trip to Catalonia was a guarantee of some warm weather training.

City will base themselves at sister club Girona and will have a few days of team bonding, which began with a flight straight from the 3-3 draw at Newcastle and will see them return ahead of Saturday’s visit of Crystal Palace.

After an extended summer break for the squad compared to some of their rivals, City had a short preseason and the trip will also give the coach an opportunity to work on tactics ahead of the fixture schedule building up.

The £42million summer signing has so far played only four minutes following his move from Leeds and is likely to have an opportunity for more game time.

With only one game a week at the moment, it’s understandable that Guardiola has chosen Rodri as his go-to holding midfielder, partly because he’s attuned to the system, but also because he’s been in brilliant form for the past two seasons.

As the schedule starts to fire up over the upcoming weeks, Phillips will get his starts in a key position and Guardiola has said this game will give rhythm to players that have so far been on the periphery.

Exactly the same can be said for the Argentinian striker, who will not have expected to have started the opening matches ahead of the standout summer signing Erling Haaland.

Acclimatising to the Premier League will be slightly easier for Haaland who was born in Leeds and speaks English, but Guardiola says that he needs Alvarez to be a strong alternative.

“Now he has one game a week, I tell you now when we have games every three days that Erling will not play, I will play Julian,” Guardiola said after the draw with Newcastle.

Having pulled all of their famous financial levers, the transfer gossip surrounding Barca is set go into a frenzy in the final weeks running up until deadline day.

Bernardo Silva has been linked with a move to Camp Nou for much of the summer and having the Portuguese playmaker in Catalonia will only add to the gossip while City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak will also be in Spain.

Silva was greeted by reporters when City’s plane touched down on Sunday night and Guardiola said: "What is going to happen? I don’t know," when he was last asked about Silva's future.

Etihad coaches have high hopes for the Academy player who was one of the reasons that City allowed Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus to leave in the summer.

The 20-year-old knows he will have to be patient for his opportunities and his only appearance so far came as a late substitute on the opening day of the season.

Injuries disrupted the end of the last campaign, but Palmer will take any chance to press his claim for more minutes with the first team.

The German goalkeeper arrived in the summer as Ederson's back-up but, barring injury, he will have to wait until November and the third round of the Carabao Cup for his debut.

Ortega has settled well in a tight bowling unit that includes the popular veteran Scott Carson as well as coaches Xabi Mancisidor and Richard Wright.

He played on the preseason tour against Club America in Houston and will welcome the chance for more first-team game time.

While Palmer is viewed as a first-team player, Guardiola has a number of young squad members acclimatising to life at the top level.

Injuries to Aymeric Laporte and Nathan Ake could present an opportunity for the highly-rated centre-back Luke Mbete if John Stones or Ruben Dias aren't risked.

Young full-backs Rico Lewis and Josh Wilson-Esbrand also impressed in pre-season and could replace Kyle Walker and Joao Cancelo who have started every game so far.

The 21-year-old left-back will return to where it all began, coming through Barca's La Masia Academy as an attacking midfielder.

Gomez played twice for Barca's B team but never got the chance to play a competitive match at Camp Nou before he moved to Borussia Dortmund and a La Liga appearance for Huesca was behind closed doors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

More importantly, an opportunity to get to know his new team-mates will help him to settle and he will hope to get his first appearance for Guardiola.

The Barca boss is building his reputation after taking charge at Camp Nou in November 2021.

But great things will be expected, including challenging for the biggest silverware - particularly after the heavy investment in a new squad this summer.

Xavi has previously hailed his former boss Guardiola as the best in the world and it might be beneficial to see if the City coach can identify any weaknesses in his set-up.