Pep Guardiola denies Man City are a 'big mess' and says Premier League champions must 'change less than ever' amid five-game losing streak

City fell to a fifth loss in a row at the weekend as they were thumped 4-0 by Tottenham at the Etihad. Although they are bang out of form and are eight points adrift of Premier League leaders Liverpool, Guardiola is not panicking about their current situation.

When asked what a good season would look like from this point, the City boss said: “I don’t know. By our standards, it will be a bad season. We come from there [top] so we can only go down if we lose. It’s nice. I think we deserve some patience when we lose games. It will not be a big mess. You are defending a legacy, tradition, success and that is so difficult to handle. If we don’t do it, try to focus on short periods of time and win the next games. What I want is commitment from the players to still do what we have to do. We will congratulate the team that takes our crown because they deserve it, not because we deliver it to them, give it to them. We have to be ourselves in every training session and every game to do what we have to do. This is the only way I know.”

City still sit second in the Premier League table and Guardiola has guided them to four straight league titles, Champions League success, and a host of domestic cups. Rather than making wholesale changes, the Spaniard stressed they need to make minor tweaks.

He added: “What should I change? We are big believers in the process and the fundamentals we have to do. Injured players have to come back to their best form, players who have played a lot of minutes because of the injuries need rest. One good result can change our mind and we believe deeply that when we are winning a lot this will pass and right now this shall pass. Nothing is eternal. The moment we start winning again, I was thinking we will start to lose games. It’s unusual basically because this team won a lot during many years.

"In this situation, we have to go more direct to our principles, change less than ever because at the end we had 26 shots against Spurs. We had more expected goals than them, we created a lot of chances. But there are departments where we’re not strong enough and that’s why when we lose in certain situations they’re stronger than us and we have to run backwards because our four central defenders are not there. They are still not ready because they are injured. One day we’re going to win a game and our mind will be clear. I hope that will happen on Tuesday, if not Sunday. The desire is there and we’re going to try.”

City will hope to end their five-game losing streak when they host Feyenoord at the Etihad in their next Champions League game on Tuesday. After that, they travel to Liverpool on Sunday in a crunch Premier League clash.