Jesus is City's only striker

LONDON • With or without Harry Kane, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola insists that his style of play will always be the same - to have control of the game and score as many goals as possible.

His team's defence of the Premier League title starts today at Tottenham, with both still in limbo over the Spurs striker.

But the Spaniard is not too concerned, even though he has only one proper No. 9 in Gabriel Jesus following the departure of Sergio Aguero.

"We can play with recognised strikers with Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus," said Guardiola, who used a "false nine" striker-less formation to great effect last term.

"Aguero was a proper striker and Gabriel is a proper striker. With them, sometimes we play with a different approach, but the intention is the same, to try to control the game and score as much as possible, with or without a striker.

"Gabriel is an incredible important player for us, he can play a striker or wider."

Kane returned to training with Spurs for the first time on Friday, after arriving back late from his holidays in the United States and then having to quarantine.

He has made no secret of his desire to leave his boyhood club to win trophies, with City the obvious destination as they seek a successor to all-time top scorer Aguero, who has joined Barcelona.

However, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy will demand a fee in excess of the league record £100 million (S$188 million) City spent on Jack Grealish this month.

Guardiola avoided any transfer talk on Friday, saying that Kane is a Tottenham player and it would be wrong to discuss his future.

"I made an exception and answered this question the previous press conference, normally I don't talk about transfers. That's all," added the City boss, who last week said that "Harry is an exceptional, extraordinary striker, of course we are very interested".

Spurs find themselves out of the Champions League for the second consecutive season, while a long and unconvincing search for a new manager has done little to inspire Kane's confidence that the club can win their first major trophy since the 2008 League Cup.

Nuno Espirito Santo was eventually named as Tottenham boss on July 1, nearly three months after Jose Mourinho was sacked.

The former Wolves manager has a big call to make on whether to play Kane today but said that he has not decided.

"I don't have any concerns about trying to convince players to play for Tottenham," he added.

"It's such a huge club, we should be proud of being here."

City's need for Kane - last season's top scorer (23) and player with most assists (14) - may be immaterial compared to Spurs.

Grealish's arrival has already bolstered Guardiola's attacking options, which include Raheem Sterling, Kevin de Bruyne, Riyad Mahrez, Ferran Torres, Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva and Jesus.

Grealish is expected to feature today while de Bruyne and Foden are set to miss out due to injuries.

The firepower City have will be key as they look to hold off Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool to retain their league crown, and go one better in Europe after reaching the Champions League final for the first time but losing to the Blues.

Chelsea have also broken their club record fee to re-sign Romelu Lukaku from Inter Milan for £97 million, while United are in good shape after signing Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane.

Over in France, Paris Saint-Germain have signed Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Georginio Wijnaldum and Achraf Hakimi as they too look to end the wait for Champions League glory.

That has set the bar for City and Kane is the best guarantee of the goals still on the market.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS