Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola has rejected a “completely unfair reason” for his side’s ongoing slump as he is trying to remain “positive”.
Man City head into their Boxing Day match at the Etihad against Everton on a dire run of form. They have only won one of their last 12 matches across all competitions.
During this run, they have exited the Carabao Cup and the likelihood of Guardiola’s side being eliminated from the Champions League at the group stages have increased. They are also 17th in the Premier League form table and 12 points adrift of table-toppers Liverpool, who have a game in hand.
Man City look to return to winning ways against Everton, who are unbeaten in three Premier League matches after back-to-back draws against Arsenal and Chelsea.
Speaking ahead of this match, Guardiola insisted he is “positive” that Man City will bounce back from this ongoing crisis as a solution will be found.
“No. I’m so positive in that,” Guardiola said.
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“Of course there are doubts about if a decision is not good or we have to do this or that but I’m so positive. We make the ordinary the extraordinary in the past.
“People at the beginning of the season started saying ‘City are going to win the Premier League in November’. The people think it’s ordinary to win and win when it’s something extraordinary.
“Now it’s a little bit the opposite, because it’s extraordinary to lose a lot of games. Some of them could have not happened, we played more than well enough to [take points]. It happens for a reason.
“Even when we won I didn’t take it for granted.
“Every situation in life you make new experiences and know what you could have done better and what you could do better in the future.”
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Guardiola has also refused to blame his players for Man City’s poor form and performances.
“It would be easy for me to say that the reason why is the players. It would be completely unfair,” Guardiola continued.
“They tried and they are not able but it happened because of many situations and they are suffering and they want to do it to get back.
“It would be easy to clean my face. They tried and we are not able to do it together.
“There are many reasons. I could say for myself that the reason is Pep. We have won six in seven years, why should it happen now?
“There are a lot of things since the start of the season that haven’t gone well. Most of the power is ours and we have to fix it, this is the point.”
