Manchester City’s players are using last season’s struggles as fuel for their nine-game unbeaten streak, according to Pep Guardiola. After finishing third in the Premier League and without a trophy, the team are aiming to avoid a repeat of the worst campaign since the Spaniard’s first in charge.
City visit Aston Villa on Sunday seeking to extend their good form, helped by Erling Haaland’s run of scoring in his past 12 appearances for club and country. “The players came to me a month ago and said: ‘Pep we don’t want to live the season like we lived last season,’” Guardiola said. “They are the first. They want to perform properly. They have pride.
“We were empty. Drained. For the success of the past, for the injuries, for many things. When you realise that life cannot always be perfect, and what you have to do to get better, we’ll be a good team. We are not consistent for 95 minutes yet but in the bad moments we are quite stable and create some good moments.”
Haaland’s gluttonous streak has moved him to 11 Premier League goals for the season, aided by playing the most minutes of any City player. The Norwegian has suffered from a number of injuries in recent years but Guardiola has no plans to manage his workload. He is set for a long year, with City battling on four fronts, and has helped Norway close in on qualification for next summer’s World Cup.
“I’m so sorry for my colleague Ståle Solbakken from the national team of Norway but I’m not thinking about that,” Guardiola said of the idea of resting Haaland. “Maybe at the end when we win the Premier League 10 points in front and 10 fixtures from the end he’ll take a rest. Now he feels fit, he feels fine.
“There are games when he might look tired and he isn’t going to play. We are in a position right now, Champions League is massively important, the games we’ve played so far and the next two games at home will give us a really, really big chance to finish in the first eight.”
