Pep Guardiola on Ederson taking penalties for Man City & Sergio Aguero injury update

Pep Guardiola has refused to rule out the possibility of Ederson being appointed Manchester City's designated penalty taker in the absence of Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne.

Despite their impressive 4-1 win over title rivals Liverpool at the weekend, City yet again spurned an opportunity from the spot as Ilkay Gundogan found row Z of the Kop with his wayward effort midway through the first half.

The German's failure from the spot marked the third penalty miss from City in the league this season - with De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling both squandering chances from the spot already this campaign - and Guardiola has conceded he could well allow Ederson the opportunity to stake his claim to be the club's designated penalty taker.

"He has to save the goals, make a good build-up after we will see what happens," he told reporters as quoted by MEN. "Sergio [Aguero] is not fit, Kevin [De Bruyne] is an incredible taker but is not there, we will see tomorrow.

"He is an option because I'm sure he is a good taker, the penalty taker needs a huge personality and confidence in himself to say I will shoot and I will score."

One of the reasons City have struggled from the spot so often this season has been the omission of Aguero from their matchday squads.

The prolific Argentinian has made just two Premier League starts all season following numerous fitness issues, and Guardiola has revealed that he won't be involved in City's squad for their FA Cup tie with Swansea on Wednesday.

"Yesterday he trained ten, 15 minutes with the group and after train apart alone," he said. "Day by day he's feeling better. [Is he ready?] Not yet."

Guardiola was asked to comment on the news referee Mike Dean has requested not to be involved in Premier League action this weekend, after he received death threats following the red card he awarded to West Ham's Tomas Soucek on Saturday.

The City boss was quick to stress the impact comments made on social media can have on others, adding that things can often be taken out of context and misconstrued - a situation he is all too well aware of following Bernardo Silva's misconduct charge for a picture sent to teammate Benjamin Mendy.

"It is difficult to control social media," he added. "What happened in South America when one football player killed himself and we say it is a pity but maybe we forget what the people said to this guy - maybe about he was not a good player, or the colour of his skin, or something about his family or his kids or his personal life.

"People today who are in public life are sometimes accused for many, many things, for example what happened to Bernardo Silva here when he was called a racist when he is one of the most gentle and kind and nicest person I ever met.

"We have to be careful but the people who judge other ones have to because maybe the people who suffer are not strong enough [for it]. A referee can make a mistake but it is incredible how people can accuse that or accuse players who make a mistake of racism.

"All the guys, all the referees, all the players, all the managers want to do a good job, they don't want to make a mistake or miss a chance or a penalty. It's part of the job."