Guardiola: I knew Man City’ll suffer, we’ll be back next season

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has insisted the club will be back in the hunt to win the Premier League next season after struggling this term.

City, following an unprecedented run of four successive English titles, are currently 12 points adrift of leaders Liverpool and on the brink of bowing out of the Champions League after throwing away a two-goal lead in a 4-2 defeat by Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) on Wednesday.

But Guardiola, who has won 18 trophies since arriving at the Etihad in 2016, was confident of a recovery as his side continue to battle for a place in next season’s Champions League at home to Chelsea on Saturday.

Speaking on Friday, Guardiola said: “We are not the best positioned in the circumstances, absolutely.

“I’m not stupid enough to not know what are our standards and level. Everybody knows it.

“Still, I believe they are a fantastic group of players, as we have proven in seven, eight, nine years. For two months of bad results, I’m not going to change the opinion.

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“But I saw it many times – three months ago, two months ago, that this season we are going to suffer, and it’s happened.

“Still, next season we’ll be back, really.”

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Guardiola added: “Many big clubs, like Chelsea right now, are not in the Champions League.

“Manchester United are not in the Champions League. It can happen to us, definitely, not being there.”

The Star