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Pep Guardiola says struggling Manchester City can hit the heights of recent seasons once he has all his top players back despite their alarming slump.
The defending Premier League champions have lost six of their past seven games in all competitions — falling 11 points behind leaders Liverpool in the English top flight.
It is an extraordinary collapse for a team that have won six of the past seven Premier League titles, including the past four. Guardiola, whose team host Nottingham Forest on Wednesday, told a pre-match press conference he was confident City’s decline is not terminal. “With all the squad this season, we’ll be close to the level that we reached last season,” he said yesterday.
The club have been beset by injury problems this season, most notably the loss of Ballon d’Or winner Rodri for the rest of the campaign. A number of other key players have spent time in the treatment room including Kyle Walker, Jack Grealish, Kevin De Bruyne, Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Dias. Guardiola described City as “magnificent” at Liverpool on Sunday despite their 2-0 defeat. “I would say we are not far away from the team second in the Premier League (City are two points behind Arsenal),” he said. “But always it’s the way you play, the consistency you have in the boxes, and many things that give you the positive thoughts of what is going to happen in future.” — SuperSport.
Online Reporter