{"id":21636,"date":"2025-11-01T09:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T09:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/21636\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T09:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T09:50:08","slug":"pep-guardiola-feels-man-city-getting-close-to-best-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/21636\/","title":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola feels Man City getting close to best form"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last week\u2019s disappointing 1-0 loss away to Aston Villa ended a nine-game unbeaten run in all competitions and left City six points behind the Gunners going into the weekend, when City host Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>City have been playing catch-up since losing back-to-back games to Tottenham and Brighton in August, but Guardiola insists he retains the optimism he had about his team during the summer.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2.81324941.jpg\" alt=\"Joao Palhinha, centre right, celebrates after scoring in Tottenham\u2019s win over Manchester City\" data-title=\"Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur \u2013 Premier League \u2013 Etihad Stadium\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Martin Rickett\" data-usage-terms=\"EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club\/league logos or \u201clive\u201d services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club\/league\/player publications.\"  \/>Defeat to Tottenham was an early setback for City this season (Martin Rickett\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStill we are not at our best, but we are close,\u201d Guardiola said. \u201cI said a month ago, that I had the smell that these words would be completely devastating if you don\u2019t get results.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know that but I had the feeling when I see the team, when I see in the dressing room, in the trainings, and how we apply, how we want to try to do things.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had the feeling that when I think Rodri can come at his best \u2013 he will not be soon at his best but he can help us \u2013 and alongside all the alternatives I can have, we will be a team that will be difficult for the opponents to beat us, and this is what I want.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWill we be there still close to the fight? I don\u2019t know, but I said from the beginning, since the (Club) World Cup in the States, I\u2019m really, really optimistic about the team going into this season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola\u2019s assistant Kolo Toure will be back on the City bench on Sunday, having missed the midweek Carabao Cup win over Swansea following the death of his father.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2.82161694.jpg\" alt=\"Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, right, with assistants Kolo Toure, centre, and Pep Lijnders, second right\" data-title=\"Aston Villa v Manchester City \u2013 Premier League \u2013 Villa Park\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Mike Egerton\" data-usage-terms=\"EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club\/league logos or \u201clive\u201d services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club\/league\/player publications.\"  \/>Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, right, with assistants Kolo Toure, centre, and Pep Lijnders, second right (Mike Egerton\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>Toure stepped up to first-team duties from the under-18s squad in the summer as part of a new backroom staff for Guardiola, which also included the arrival of former Liverpool assistant Pep Lijnders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have been so lucky in my career as a manager,\u201d Guardiola said of his assistants. \u201cI\u2019ve been incredibly happy to work with all of them. Not me, but Manchester City have Pep Lijnders and Kolo and James (French) for set-pieces, the new people came and it is a joy to work with them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m so happy and I am learning a lot. Always I try to have people who can add something to my knowledge as a manager and I have it. We discuss a lot how we can do things. That is so nice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFootball is not just played, but talked (about) as well, how we can help the team. I feel protected, I feel embraced by all of them and that is the only thing I can ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week\u2019s disappointing 1-0 loss away to Aston Villa ended a nine-game unbeaten run in all competitions and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-21636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}