Man City’s poor Premier League run is a reality check
Pep Guardiola says Manchester City’s winless streak serves as a reality check for his squad.
City go to Luton on Sunday and will be out to avoid going five games without a Premier League win following a 1-0 defeat against Aston Villa on Wednesday.
Guardiola has never gone five league games without a win in his career.
“When you are winning you are the best in the world – not winning it’s a crisis,” he said.
“It’s always exaggerated.”
City have lifted the Premier League trophy for the past three seasons and last season won the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League treble. The club have not gone five matches without a win since Mark Hughes was in charge in 2009.
Speaking on Friday, he alluded to some of his players having enjoyed life like a pampered pet.
“For a long time, we’ve lived like a cat and known how good we are,” he said.
Guardiola, whose team have slipped to fourth in the Premier League, feels the current relative struggles on the pitch may prove to be a positive in resetting standards.
“See how difficult what we have done is, and what will be?” he said. “The bad results help you to understand it.
“It’s not about complacency. Complacency is about arriving late to training, not training good, not doing a good job.
“But the fans and the media say ‘Oh my God, they lose’. Four games without winning. It can be five, six. It can happen.
“But look at the next three [in the table]. How the teams do more and more, year by year. I see the hunger in the opponents. I see it.
“The players have to realise that it’s not my words that can help, or our accomplishments. It’s them on the pitch to say, ‘Oh my god, the opponents are much better’.
“After that we can make a step forward. It’s the only way.”
Guardiola says it is “too simplistic” to put City’s latest setback, a 1-0 defeat at Villa Park, down to the absence of midfielder Rodri due to suspension.
He also feels City have proven in the past they can still win without midfielder Kevin de Bruyne, who, his manager says, might find this month’s Club World Cup comes “too soon” in his comeback from a hamstring injury, even though he has been named in the squad for the seven-team event in Saudi Arabia.
Guardiola ‘so sorry’ for Phillips
Despite the downturn in results, England midfielder Kalvin Phillips has not been on the pitch for a single minute, which underlines Guardiola’s lack of faith in the £45m signing from Leeds.
“I feel so sorry for my decisions for him,” Guardiola said. “He doesn’t deserve not to get minutes.
“I am asking for good personality, good character, thinking about the end. This is a perfect example. After that I have to give him something and I didn’t do that.
“It’s just because I visualise the team and struggle a little bit to see him, that’s all.”
With Rodri back at Kenilworth Road, City are heavy favourites to end their wait for a win, even though both Liverpool and Arsenal have struggled on the same pitch already this season.
Guardiola says he is not blocking the outside noise. He just wants his players to prove their doubters wrong.
“The intention is not to block anything,” he said.
“The important thing for us is to face reality. We’re not used to four games without winning.”