‘We had 40 bad days in eight years’

Pep Guardiola says Manchester City’s poor form must be put into context as they prepare for another tough trip against Aston Villa.

Guardiola has guided City to the last four Premier League titles, and six of the last seven.

This season, however, saw a run of one win in 11 matches as City dropped to fifth in the league table, below Nottingham Forest and two points ahead of Villa.

Guardiola said: “I deal with the good moments, I deal with the bad moments. I had bad managers in my career, but we managed to come back and now it lasts longer.

“I have experience with it. I had 40 results-bad days, that’s true when you compare it to eight years, which is much better. It was eight years of incredible (results), and now we have 40-45 days (of bad results).

PEP 💬 Manuel (Akanji) and John (Stones) return to training. That’s good for us…

I don’t know yet (whether he will start on Saturday). Yesterday was their first training session. pic.twitter.com/nRdNHj134D

— Manchester City (@ManCity) December 20, 2024

“I’m fine. I am a normal person with feelings like all of us. When the situation is going well, we are better, and when it is not going professionally, we are more (focused) on what we have to do.”

Villa finished fourth last season and made another challenge for a top-four finish with an impressive Champions League campaign that saw wins over Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig.

Guardiola says their success under Unai Emery is no surprise.

“I’m not surprised,” he said. “Excellent, excellent manager. (They had good success) qualifying for the Champions League and the results in the Champions League speak for themselves.

“They handle it well because while I’ve been at a lot of clubs that have run both competitions, they’ve been very good.”