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Manchester City is flying in the Premier League after six successive victories, with the Blues firmly in title contention after a disappointing 2024/25 campaign
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola said that he and his players had a heart-to-heart chat during the Club World Cup in a bid to get back on track after a relatively disappointing 2024/25 campaign.
City finished third – the club's lowest final position since Guardiola's first season in charge — and experienced early exits from the Champions League and Carabao Cup. City's poor campaign was compounded by a loss to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final, and the disappointment continued into the summer as the Blues were eliminated from the Club World Cup at the last-16 stage.
After City recorded a win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday that sent the team to the top of the Premier League table for a few hours, Guardiola said that he and his squad had some frank discussions over the summer, which have led to an improvement on the pitch this term.
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“We looked at ourselves and talked a lot and changed for many things. Now, it’s a process. I’m complete, when we won a lot of titles in Barcelona, Bayern Munich, here, you have a lot of games of this type."
Tijjani Reijnders opened the scoring for City at Forest, while Rayan Cherki grabbed the eventual winning goal after Omari Hutchinson had equalized.
“The body language, how we celebrated, the connection with the fans is there, they (the fans) love the keepers, the strikers, because they feel the team want to do it and fight for each other," Guardiola added.
“The fans accept if you play bad, but don’t if you don’t put the heart or commitment for the people who adore that club, and that connection is there but I think it’s been there for a long time, for many months.”
On the challenge of facing Forest, which has lost three of its last four in the league, Guardiola added: "They are three points but a massive three points mainly for the quality of the opposition.
"Sean Dyche has created a proper team — this team a few months ago were fighting for the Champions League.
"It's a top side. I know the momentum is not good but it does not change the quality of the side."
English (US) ·