Guardiola admits doubt can start to creep into City camp
Pep Guardiola admitted that doubt could be starting to creep into the Manchester City camp following their 2-1 defeat at Leicester on Boxing Day.
Successive Premier League losses have seen Guardiola’s team slip seven points behind leaders Liverpool and drop to third in the table behind Tottenham.
It is the first time in two years that City have lost back-to-back Premier League games and they have now suffered three defeats in four league outings, following losses against Chelsea at the beginning of the month and Crystal Palace last weekend.
City were unable to hold onto the lead given to them by Bernardo Silva as Marc Albrighton quickly equalised. Ricardo Pereira’s 81stminute strike then proved to be the winner for Leicester.
“We have to except the reality. It’s happened, accept the reality and try to win again for our confidence,” said Guardiola.
“Now there will be doubts but we have to change the dynamic. I have to think about what the team needs and then try to win again.
“In football you are able to win a lot of games and lose a lot of games. We have to think about Southampton next and recover mentally.”
While City were dropping more points against Leicester, Liverpool were comfortably beating Newcastle 4-0 at Anfield to open up a potentially significant gap at the top of the table.
City host Jurgen Klopp’s side at the Etihad on January 3 but Guardiola refused to look beyond the trip to St Mary’s on Sunday.