Man City not ‘special’ but will recover from losing run – Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola insisted Manchester City are not “special” after they fell to a fourth defeat in a row against Brighton on Saturday.

It left the champions five points off the pace in the Premier League and struggling to cope with an injury crisis that saw them line up without 10 first-team players at the Amex Stadium.

There was a league debut in central defence for 19-year-old Jahmai Simpson-Pusey and a makeshift backline ultimately caved under intense Brighton pressure in the second half, conceding late goals to Joao Pedro and Matt O’Riley to cancel out Erling Haaland’s 23rd-minute strike.

It was the first time in Guardiola’s managerial career that one of his teams had lost four in a row and left City in a fight to cling on in the race to win a fifth straight title.

“I was a football player and many times I lost a lot of games – four in a row, five in a row, six in a row,” he said. “I never expect different, the fact we won in the past, that we are special. People can believe that but it’s not true.”

City’s run of 32 unbeaten league games was ended in their previous outing against Bournemouth at the start of November whilst they were also beaten 4-1 by Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League and dumped out of the Carabao Cup by Tottenham.

Guardiola’s squad depth is being sorely tested, with four central defenders absent against Brighton including first-choice pairing Ruben Dias and John Stones, whilst Kevin De Bruyne, Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish were also out.

“You can lose four games in different competitions,” said Guardiola. “Again if you ask me every single game that we lost, I will give you my opinion.

“I know after you win, everything is perfect. Against Fulham, we won and we played miles worse than today and Sporting Lisbon and Spurs. Miles away.

“But we are not consistent enough to maintain this level that helped us to win what we want for many years. Hopefully in the future we’ll come back, and if we don’t come back we’ll learn from that.”

City have been champions in six of the last seven seasons but it is not uncommon for them to stumble in the autumn.

Last season they suffered a run of one league win in six between November and December but recovered to win 18 of the next 21 and retain the title.

“That’s what it’s always about, don’t be complacent when you win a lot, know how difficult it is,” said Guardiola. “That makes us believe how difficult it was and how nice it will be when we win again.

“This period of ‘oh my god, what have we done?’ Four in a row, but (we won) six titles in seven years, playing against Bournemouth and Brighton. All the teams in this league are important, that puts it in perspective. You take for granted before the season that City will win again.

“Right now we are not in our best, it’s obvious. But still it’s November so hopefully we’ll come back step by step. Every game will be tough for every team. We’ll recover our best and then we’ll see.”