Pep Guardiola believes fewer points will be required to win the Premier League this season due to increased physical demands on players.
Manchester City became the first team in English top-flight history to reach 100 points in 2017/18 and three more times under Guardiola have broken the 90-point barrier.
City’s rivals have in turn upped their game with Liverpool hitting 99, 97 and 92 during three of the last six seasons, whilst six of the last eight champions have racked up upwards of 90 points.
FULL-TIME | Defeat in Bournemouth.
🍒 2-1 🩵 #ManCity | @okx pic.twitter.com/zXrDFYivii
— Manchester City (@ManCity) November 2, 2024
Before 2017, only four teams had hit 90 in the 21 years since the league reduced to 20 clubs and 38 matches.
Following Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth that ended City’s 32-game unbeaten league run, Guardiola was asked whether he expected that trend to reverse as the number of games drives up pressure on players.
“Of course, absolutely,” he said.
“If we’d had five more days to prepare and recover (for Bournemouth), maybe we would have been better. Or maybe not, who knows.
“I talked about the calendar for the season when we were winning, not just now because we lost a game. The reality is they won, we congratulate them.”
City are due to take part in FIFA’s inaugural Club World Cup in July following the completion of the European season.
Last month, the global players’ union Fifpro and a group representing 39 European leagues filed a legal complaint against FIFA over “abuse of dominance” relating to the number of games in which players are expected to participate.
“It’s the reality we are living now,” said Guardiola. “In the previous seasons we played a lot of games, but maybe we will go to the World Cup and arrive in the last stages of that competition, we’re going to play almost 70 games.
“It’s like NBA, but they have four months holiday and we have three weeks.
“You have injuries for a long time like didn’t happen before. It’s normal, it’s going to happen. We have to handle it.”
City were without key players for the defeat at the Vitality Stadium with John Stones, Ruben Dias and Kevin De Bruyne notable absences.
Defenders Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake were pressed into service despite not being fully fit and were noticeably off the pace as a fearless Bournemouth landed a first ever victory over City.
Guardiola was asked whether the hectic schedule took a toll on his own energy levels.
“I don’t play, I don’t run. I’m sitting,” he said.
“We won a lot and people expect we’re going to win all the time. It’s the first game we’ve lost in the Premier League in 2024. We’re in November. It’s unbelievable.
“We’ll learn from this and we’ll improve. I’m fine. I still have energy. I wanted to win (on Saturday). Congratulations to Bournemouth is all I can say.”
