Kevin De Bruyne warned of "fight" for Man City starting position by Guardiola

Kevin De Bruyne knows he has to fight to win back his Manchester City place, according to boss Pep Guardiola.

De Bruyne is back for City after missing a month having tested positive for coronavirus and will start tonight's Champions League dead rubber away to RB Leipzig.

City's midfielders have stepped up in De Bruyne's absence, with Bernardo Silva their stand-out performer, Guardiola hailing him as the Premier League's best player on current form.

Although Guardiola said De Bruyne - whose last start for City was in the Manchester derby on November 6 - does not have anything to prove, he did concede the 30-year-old must get back to the level where he can be sure of reclaiming his status as an automatic pick.

"Kevin played all the season from the beginning," said Guardiola. "He arrived back after the Euros last season in a difficult condition and played and played and played.

"After that, he got coronavirus. He was growing in his physical condition and then it was a setback.

"It's normal, because the people who suffer from coronavirus, the next days they feel so empty, so it's step by step.

"He played 30 minutes at Watford, tomorrow he'll start and we'll see how many minutes he can play.

"Now he has to come back and fight for a position like everyone else. But Kevin doesn't have to show absolutely anything to me.

"He has to come back being himself, show himself he's back and do what he has to do, like he has done the last five or six years, every single three days.

"Absolutely it's a problem, but of course the competition is so necessary in the team and he knows it, but Bernardo knows it, and Ilkay Gundogan knows it, and all the wingers and strikers know it.

"They know they have to play good, playing five minutes, 10 minutes or 90 minutes, and that's all. I know all of them, they don't have to show me anything.

"They have to show it for themselves, to play good because they have to, because they have the quality to do it for themselves, for the team, for their mates, for everyone."

With City already through to the last 16 as Group A winners, Guardiola will use tonight's game to give De Bruyne and some youngsters some much-needed match action.

As well as De Bruyne, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish, both of whom have also just returned from injury, are expected to start, alongside City's teenage sensation Cole Palmer.

"We're not playing for the points," said Guardiola. "We're playing because we're athletes, we want to win and to improve our standards - which for the last month have been really high - and try to continue the rhythm."