Everton vs. Manchester City: Pep Guardiola's Key Pre-Match Presser Comments

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has confirmed club captain Vincent Kompany has returned to fitness after an eight-week lay-off with a knee injury and could be in contention to face Everton on Sunday. 

Per City's official Twitter feed, Guardiola gave the latest on his team's fitness ahead of the clash, with special mention for the Belgian:

According to Anthony Jepson and Robert Cottingham of the Manchester Evening News, on whether the centre-back would make City's UEFA Champions League squad for the remainder of the season, Guardiola said he hadn't thought about it. 

The Spaniard added, per FourFourTwo: 

"

I don’t want him to put too much pressure on himself—you have to do simple things and hopefully he will achieve his level.

He wants to come back immediately and make everything perfect immediately but he has to feel and be given time by manager and team-mates to come back.

"

The defender is City's best, but his struggles with injury have made relying on his fitness increasingly difficult in recent years. According to Jack Gaughan of the MailOnline, his latest setback was his 35th injury since joining the club in 2008.

New signing Gabriel Jesus will not be able to feature against Everton as he cannot be registered in time, per Andy Hampson of the Press Association:

Meanwhile, John Stones will return to Goodison Park for the first time since his summer transfer to City. Guardiola believes the defender will reach his potential with the Sky Blues and is confident he'll cope with the trip to Everton:

Per Jepson and Cottingham, he added: "I would like a player to come back to Man City for fans to respect him, but I’m not concerned about Everton [fans booing Stones]. Hopefully they can respect him and players have regrets—Everton have a lot [of] influence in him, but he will try and play as well as possible for his team-mates."

Guardiola also called for his side to be more resolute throughout and reflected on the threat the Toffees will provide:

The Citizens were made to work for their 10-man victory over Burnley in their last Premier League outing and slipped to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Liverpool in the match prior.

Kompany's return will help add some stability at the back, but City continue to miss Ilkay Gundogan's calming presence in midfield.

Everton have slightly improved of late with three wins in their last five Premier League games but have nevertheless been inconsistent—they've not strung consecutive results together in all competitions since back-to-back draws against Crystal Palace and City in September and October.

Following that pattern, they could be set to earn at least a draw given their last result was a 2-1 defeat to Leicester City in the FA Cup, but they'll need to improve significantly to do so against a City side that have won five of their last six matches.