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PEP GUARDIOLA wants his Manchester City players to channel the pain of their dramatic Champions League exit during the Premier League title run-in – in the hope it inspires rather than derails their bid.

City face Tottenham at the Etihad Stadium at lunchtime today less than 72 hours since crashing out of the Champions League quarter-finals at home to Mauricio Pochettino’s side.

Victory over Spurs today would move City a point above Liverpool with four games to play. But Guardiola is unsure what reaction he will get from his deflated players. “Before the game you don’t know how you will play, you never know how you’ll react, we were out other times and reacted well, but really I don’t know,” Guardiola said.

“If you believe it doesn’t hurt, or forget it, I’d say no. I want to see my players know what they did on Wednesday. It will take time (to get over) and we have to live with that feeling.

“But what we lived was incredible, we were lucky to live it. We have to live with these situations, accept them. It will be on our minds, but looking back it will help us to move forward.”

Fernandinho and Leroy Sane are in line to start as Guardiola freshens his team, but the City manager was adamant that he had no intention of sacrificing the Carabao Cup or FA Cup next season in a bid to boost the club’s European prospects.

“You think the team was tired in the last game (against Spurs)?” Guardiola said. “We had a semi-final of the FA Cup [against Brighton before the first leg against Spurs]. I’m not going to drop any competitions because maybe in the future it will be better.

“Who knows what’s going to happen in the future? I will dream next season of fighting for the four titles, that’s my dream.”

Guardiola also maintained his support for VAR, despite seeing Raheem Sterling’s ‘winning’ goal chalked off.

“Talking about VAR is f ***** g boring,” he said. “Sometimes it helps you, sometimes not. (© Daily Telegraph, London)