Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says he is not going to ‘waste energy’ on the EFL Cup even though no manager has been more successful than him in the competition.

City edged into the last 16 of this season’s edition thanks to first-half goals from Jeremy Doku and Matheus Nunes, his first for the club, in a 2-1 win against Championship side Watford.

Only Doku and Kyle Walker kept their starting places for a game that began less than 50 hours after the enthralling 2-2 Premier League draw with Arsenal had ended.

With a league game at Newcastle on Saturday lunchtime (12:30 BST), and a Wednesday tie ruled out on police grounds as Manchester United are playing at home to FC Twente in the Europa League, Guardiola opted for a quick turnaround from Sunday rather than the alternatives of switching the game to Watford or playing on Thursday.

“The next round, I announce you, I play the second team,” said Guardiola. “We are not going to waste energy, for sure.”

The fourth round is scheduled for either 29 or 30 October. Although there are no clashes with European fixtures in that week, Chelsea are due to play in the Uefa Conference League when the quarter-finals are scheduled in the midweek before Christmas.

Guardiola is level with Brian Clough and Sir Alex Ferguson with four triumphs in this competition. However, with additional European matches from this season, he feels he has to look at the tournament differently.

“The schedule is the schedule, we cannot handle it anyway,” he said. “Today for [James] McAtee, Matheus [Nunes], Jack [Grealish], Phil [Foden], who didn't play, the young lad, 16 years old, it's perfect,” he said. “That's why it's a good competition, otherwise we wouldn’t win four in a row.

“We play to go through. We never throw a competition. Never. But we played 50 hours ago. I’m not going to [take] a risk with the Premier League and the Champions League in this competition.”