'All good!' - Erling Haaland aims cheeky jibe at Pep Guardiola after Man City boss warned squad over eating too much at Christmas

City are looking a sure bet to add more silverware to their trophy cabinet this season following an eight-game winning run which has seen them move to within two points of Premier League leaders Arsenal, while Guardiola’s men are also fourth in the Champions League standings.

Following back-to-back league wins over Leeds United and Fulham which saw City ship six goals across both matches, the 10-time champions have gone from strength to strength since then, keeping five clean sheets in their last six victories in all competitions.

City managed to shut out high-flying Sunderland, Crystal Palace and strugglers West Ham United in the league, while they also prevented Brentford from finding the back of the net en route to reaching the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup.

The only goal City have conceded this month came in the 2-1 win over Spanish giants Real Madrid in the Champions League on 10 December, with Brazil international Rodrygo opening the scoring before Nico O’Reilly and Haaland turned things around for the Manchester club.

Such is City’s incredible momentum heading in 2026 that head coach Guardiola told his players they faced being weighed upon their return from Christmas Day.

Desperate to ensure his charges remain razor-sharp ahead of the business end of the 2025-26 campaign, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss insisted any City player who returned from the festivities unfit would miss the Forest clash.

“The moment they arrive after three days [off] I want to see how they come back," Guardiola said. "They can eat but I want to control them. Imagine one player and now he's perfect but he will arrive with three kilos more. He will be in Manchester, he will not travel to Nottingham Forest.”

Known for being a ruthless disciplinarian when it comes to fitness levels, Guardiola also revealed he turned down requests from the City players to skip their training session last Sunday.

"The players asked me to have tomorrow's [Sunday's] training session off and I said no, because they didn't play well enough [against West Ham on Saturday],” Guardiola continued.

"So Sunday recovery, train the guys that didn't play, and after three days off they have two days to prepare for Nottingham Forest."

However, Guardiola did say he was aware of how important it is to give his City squad time off, adding: "I've learned from England, since I arrived, as much days [where you can] have a day off, you give them. The schedule is so tight and the players have to forget. The moment of the game they will be fresh in the legs.”

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And it turns out Guardiola was able to get his message across to City talisman Haaland, who couldn’t resist poking fun at his manager ahead of the trip to Forest.

Taking to social media on Christmas Day, the Premier League’s current top goalscorer gave Guardiola the perfect present by declaring he will be fit to travel to the City Ground on Saturday.

Uploading a picture of his feet upon a set of scales, Haaland - who has scored an incredible 19 goals in just 17 league games this season - succinctly wrote “All good!!” as a tongue-in-cheek caption.

It is likely Guardiola will see the funny side of Haaland’s response as the two are regularly all smiles when embracing upon the final whistle.

After the two shared a hug and a laugh following the forward’s decisive winner in City’s 1-0 league win over Brentford in October, Guardiola was asked what he and Haaland were talking about after the match.

“[I told him to] keep going,” Guardiola told Sky Sports. “He has been so important for us this season.”

Haaland will be hoping to find the back of the net once again when City travel to a Forest side who have won three of their last six league games under manager Sean Dyche's stewardship.