'I'm pretty sure' - Pep Guardiola makes Man City prediction for next season

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola spoke about what he expects from his players next season after a difficult campaign

Pep Guardiola believes everyone at Manchester City now knows how to ensure next season is better. The Blues can end this campaign with qualification for the Champions League and FA Cup success, but nobody will consider it a good year.

More was expected of a team that had won the last four Premier Leagues, and nobody saw the run of form coming that ended their hopes of another defence and saw them out of the Champions League before the knockout rounds for the first time since Roberto Mancini was in charge. Only in recent weeks has the mood lifted at the Etihad with wins over Crystal Palace, Everton, and Aston Villa giving the Blues some momentum to carry with them.

Guardiola expects another difficult campaign next season, with almost no rest over the summer because of their participation in the Club World Cup. An attempt to delay the start to their Premier League fixtures was denied by the league, so City will start next year on the back foot.

Despite that, the manager believes that the Blues will be 'back again' looking like their old selves - even if it is no guarantee of trophies. More important to Guardiola than tactics over the last few weeks have been how the players have been 'humble' enough to fight for the club on the pitch.

"It doesn't matter how many trophies you win when you are not performing like we were in terms of everything. What happened can happen," he said.

"It happens to all the teams around the world. What surprised me is it took nine years to arrive in this stage.

"Even with that, now we are third in the table. There are reasons why we dropped unexpectedly too much.

"I have the feeling we will be better, we will compete better. We will be more who we are.

"I'm not saying we're going to win the Premier League, arrive in last stages of Champions League or Carabao Cup because we don't have holidays or recovery and I know how we will react but I know the players realise what they have to do to be a decent team.

"I think Aston Villa came here having won 10 of their last 11. At Villa Park against PSG, what a way for a defeat. It happened sometimes with us in the Champions League, against Madrid or against Tottenham.

"That is the way I want to lose and Villa have to be proud of that. Against a team who you know how good they are, we were there.

"We didn't concede much and were stable, we had good spirit and passion and desire. Forget about tactics, have this humble behaviour to defend this club and position.

"I'm pretty sure we had it and will have it again because I know the players and the club and we will be back again."

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