Pep Guardiola has warned Manchester City’s rivals not to doubt his team after they won their fifth major trophy of the year. City beat Fluminense in the Club World Cup final on Friday but return to the Premier League six points behind the leaders, Arsenal albeit with a game in hand.
City breezed to victory in the semi-final and final in Saudi Arabia but have won once in their past six league games. They travel to face Sean Dyche’s resurgent Everton on Wednesday night as they look to get their title challenge back on track.
“In the moment you don’t win there are going to be doubts but that is what is nice,” Guardiola said. “That is OK. Doubt again. We’ll see what happens. I said a few days ago when we played incredibly well against Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Tottenham and we didn’t win, it’s the real proof that they don’t care about the way we play. We played quite similar to the best levels we have played these past eight years. But we don’t win so it’s a crisis, a disaster.
“Of course you have bad moments like [the recent 1-0 defeat by] Aston Villa. Aston Villa were better and you have to accept it and move forward. Now we are very happy but they are waiting around the corner. The criticism is part of the job. You have to accept that the people can criticise you but it’s just because you don’t win. So, try to win the next game.”
Victory against Fluminense in Jeddah brought Guardiola his 14th major trophy since arriving in Manchester in 2016. He said painful Champions League defeats in the past had paved the way for the triumph in the Club World Cup, for which City qualified by beating Internazionale in last season’s European final.
“The reason we are here is Monaco, Liverpool, Tottenham, it’s Lyon,” the manager said. “It’s a final against Chelsea we lost and the last minutes against Madrid. It hurts in that moment but now it doesn’t hurt. That helped us and helped us to win against Inter Milan.
“It’s a process. For the big, big clubs they’re used to that but for us it was new, to feel we can do it. We believe we can win everywhere.”
City are hoping Rodri will be fit despite the Spain midfielder sustaining a heavy blow to his ankle against Fluminense, while doubts persist over the availability of Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku.
Everton’s hopes of taking points off Man City have been dented by a growing injury list during a busy December schedule. Key midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure recently picked up a muscle injury and Idrissa Gueye was forced off during Saturday’s 2-1 loss at Tottenham.
