Pep Guardiola makes surprising turnaround on Man City claim ahead of Liverpool clash

Pep Guardiola has walked back his previous gloomy prediction about Manchester City's title chances, insisting this weekend's monumental clash against Liverpool at Anfield is not the be-all and end-all.

Instead, he struck a more optimistic note ahead of Sunday's game, even though he knew Arne Slot's in-form Liverpool could move 11 points clear of his beleaguered side with a win.

Amid a difficult run that sees City winless in six games in all competitions and having suffered three consecutive defeats in the Premier League, Guardiola's side are also struggling with injuries, missing key defensive midfielders and many central defenders.

Nevertheless, despite these setbacks, which he highlighted during a press conference on Friday, he remains confident in his four-time champion in a row.

After losing to Tottenham, Guardiola agreed that the title would be out of City's reach if they lost to Liverpool. He said: “Yes. As for Liverpool winning, winning, yes. I would say when you lose three games in a row it's the worst thing to say you'll be champion.”

Yet when asked again about the implications of the Liverpool game this week, Guardiola played down its finality, saying: “In the current situation it is not realistic to think about big goals.

“The situation is to think about a match and create the momentum to continue. Even in the situation we found ourselves in in the past, thinking about winning the titles was not realistic, we recovered.

“Liverpool are so powerful in all departments, especially in the boxes. It will be difficult but in the situation where we are losing a lot of games in a row and three in the Premier League, I am always thinking about March or April targets.

“It doesn't matter what happens on Sunday. It will be more difficult if we don't get a result on Sunday, but there are still a lot of matches to play.”

Guardiola, on the other hand, does not expect City's season to suddenly be saved by a victory. The Citizens have not won in front of an Anfield crowd since May 2003.

“This is the big error in your analysis,” argued the Catalan. “The result won't change anything. The atmosphere would be better but after three days against Nottingham Forest, if you're not stable it won't happen.

“You're stable when you win 10 or 12 games in a row, like we've done for so many years. One game now isn't going to change the feeling we have as a team.

“All I would ask for is not the result but the return of the players. I just ask the players to return to the team we created at the start of the season, to go everywhere to be who we are. From the start of the season, we might not do that.

“That's the situation we experienced. When people ask me what I want, to win matches? Yes, but if we don't have the players, sooner or later we will fall again.”