Old friendships will be briefly forgotten at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, as manager Pep Guardiola urged Manchester City to be wary of ex-player Vincent Kompany’s Burnley when the teams meet in an FA Cup quarter final.

Former City captain Kompany played under Guardiola from 2016-19 before leaving to join Anderlecht as player-manager.

He took over Burnley in 2022 and has led them to the top of the second-tier Championship standings on 83 points from 33 matches, a position from which they look poised to earn promotion back to the Premier League a year after being relegated.

Earlier this month, Guardiola heaped praise on Burnley and said that Kompany was destined to one day succeed him as City manager.

On Friday, however, Guardiola sounded cautious, telling reporters: “I said before that it’s nice he’ll be back, but these last two or three days, I’ve only been thinking about what they’ve done this season. I’m not surprised with the position they have in the Championship.”

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag said he always believed Marcus Rashford would find his scoring boots after the forward took his tally to 30 goals for club and country this season.

“I said it in the summer, I was asked if I believe in Rashford could score 20-plus goals and I said: ‘Yes,’” Ten Hag told reporters ahead of Sunday’s last-eight match at home to Fulham.

“He (Rashford) progressed during the season. He was not in the best shape when he started the season but the way of playing gives him a base and he brings his skills in and his attitude and mentality.

Palace fire Vieira

London: Crystal Palace sacked manager Patrick Vieira after 20 months in charge on Friday after their 1-0 defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion left them three points above the relegation zone.

Palace are the only Premier League side without a win in 2023, having drawn five and lost six of their games. Their last league win came on December 31, 2-0 at Bournemouth, and they are 12th in the league on 27 points with 11 games to play.

“It is with enormous regret that this difficult decision has been made,” Palace Chairman Steve Parish said.

“Results in recent months have placed us in a precarious league position and we felt a change is necessary to give us the best chance of retaining Premier League status.”

Reuters