“We’ve had 40 bad days in eight years”

Pep Guardiola says Manchester City’s poor run of form needs to be put into context as they prepare for another tough trip to face Aston Villa.

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

This season, however, has seen an 11-game winning streak as City have slipped to fifth in the table, below Nottingham Forest and two points ahead of Villa.

Guardiola said: “I take care of the good times, the bad. I’ve had some bad ones in my coaching career, but we’ve been able to come back and now it’s taking longer.

“I have experience with this. I’ve had 40 days of bad days in terms of results, that’s the truth if you compare it to eight years, which is much better. It’s been eight years of incredible (results) and now we have 40 -45 days of (bad results).

PEP 💬 Manuel (Akanji) and John (Stones) are back in training. This is good for us…

I don’t know yet (if they will start on Saturday). Yesterday was his first training. pic.twitter.com/nRdNHj134D

— Manchester City (@ManCity) December 20, 2024

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

Villa finished fourth last season and have juggled another challenge for a top-four spot with an impressive Champions League campaign that has seen wins over Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig.

Guardiola says his success with Unai Emery has come as no surprise.

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

“They’re handling it well because when I’ve been at a lot of clubs managing both competitions, they’ve done really well.”