Pep Guardiola accused of ‘committing a cardinal sin’ by fuming Leyton Orient fans ahead of Man City’s FA Cup clash
FUMING Leyton Orient fans accused Pep Guardiola of “committing a cardinal sin” ahead of their FA Cup clash with Manchester City.
The League One outfit welcome the Premier League champions to east London for an early kick-off at 12.15pm on Saturday.
Orient will have to be at their very best to stand a chance against City, who spent £180million on new signings in January.
The likes of Nico Gonzalez and Vitor Reis could make their debuts tomorrow.
While Omar Marmoush and Abdukodir Khusanov are still getting up to speed with City’s style of play and are likely to feature.
However, it’s not the Etihad club’s riches that riled up O’s supporters on Friday.
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The club are based in Leyton but are regularly referred to as Orient in the football world.
Yet in his pre-match press conference, City boss Guardiola instead called them “Leyton” several times over.
And this triggered several Orient fans who unleashed their fury online.
One said: “He has committed a cardinal sin.”
Another declared: “This means war.”
One noted: “That’s our team talk done for us.”
Another added: “When we get pumped 6-0 we can just pretend they were playing Leyton FC.”
Speaking ahead of the match, Guardiola admitted Orient pose a real threat to City despite their gulf in wealth.
He said: “Of course (they can cause trouble). We’ve always had problems away in this competition to teams in the Championship, League One or League Two.
“We always struggle. But we are ready for the challenge. Every game is a new opportunity.”
City play Real Madrid in a Champions League knockout match after the Orient game.
But Pep is taking nothing for granted, adding: “I have an eye on Madrid but Leyton Orient deserve my attention, it has always been like that.
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“Otherwise we would not get the amount of semis and finals of the FA Cup that we’ve had in the past years.
“Tomorrow, after the game, we will come back early to Manchester, and after that we have time to start to talk.”