Joe Hart dropped for Guardiola's City bow

Manchester City's undisputed No. 1 for six terms, Joe Hart, has been dropped by Pep Guardiola for the first match of the 2016-17 Premier League campaign.

Willy Caballero will instead don the goalkeeping gloves for Saturday's season opener against Sunderland, leaving Hart to warm the bench alongside the likes of Fabian Delph and Kelechi Iheanacho.

Guardiola insisted that he was happy with the England international's qualities and attitude on Friday, but hinted that Hart's future was under consideration after the Spaniard assessed his inherited ranks over the summer.

"We are going to decide inside the doors," said Guardiola. "Now, he is a player of us."

The former Shrewsbury Town shot-stopper is a popular personality among the City faithful, but has been prone to lapses in concentration in the past. His international outings at Euro 2016 were error-strewn, heightening speculation that Guardiola would try to tempt Barcelona's Marc-Andre ter Stegen to Manchester.

Hart, 29, holds the record for the most Premier League Golden Glove awards (four) and has 302 appearances in the English top flight.

Yaya Toure, the ungainly Ivorian who attracted criticism in 2015-16 due to his regularly languid outings, was excluded from the matchday squad altogether, along with Wilfried Bony, Samir Nasri and Jason Denayer.