Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola believes qualification for the Champions League this season would represent a “huge success”.
After four successive Premier League titles, City find themselves in an unfamiliar position of simply battling to secure a top-four place this term.
City have slipped to fifth ahead of Saturday’s clash with Brighton, who are just one point behind them and one of several clubs jostling for the European places.
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“Brighton are one of the best clubs working on and off the pitch,” Guardiola said at a press conference. “The position where they are right now is because they are doing many good things and they deserve to be there.
“And Bournemouth, and Aston Villa, and Newcastle, and maybe Fulham will be there – fantastic teams.
“It’s not a surprise, I have the feeling that they deserve it. They are really good, consistent, they have incredible weapons in the way they play.
“It’s a big fight. It’s not a disappointment to be here. It’s a challenge.
“If we are able to qualify for the Champions League, it would be a huge success from my point of view.
“There are seasons that you have to live this but it is in our hands, it depends on us. We don’t have to look at any other things than our performance.”
City missed the chance to move back to third in the table when they were beaten at Nottingham Forest, another of the European contenders, last weekend.
It was their ninth defeat of the league campaign and Guardiola later referred to his side’s remaining fixtures as “10 finals”.
He said: “We have to reach the highest possible level to qualify for Europe next season. We have to be consistent as much as possible.
“Most of the games are really tough and we have to do better because there are many teams with this target and we missed an important chance last week.”
City would ordinarily have expected to have been involved in the Champions League this week but their premature exit at the play-off stage instead left them watching from home.
“It doesn’t hurt,” he said. “People say it does but I don’t have any disappointment or regret.
“We didn’t deserve to be there. Just enjoy the fantastic games – I was just a spectator to learn and enjoy.”
The absence of European action at least gave City a full week to prepare to face Brighton, but Guardiola is yet to be convinced that was beneficial.
He said: “We had it against Nottingham and it didn’t work.
“In the past we were in contention for all competitions and look how it worked. We have to prove that we can do it without playing every three or four days.”
