Pep Guardiola has told his players they need to be almost perfect in their final seven Premier League games if they are to qualify for the Champions League.
City have the opportunity to put pressure on their rivals for a top-five place by playing first this weekend. Crystal Palace visit the Etihad Stadium on Saturday lunchtime and a City would jump two places to fourth with a win, temporarily at least.
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“If you want to be in the Champions League next season and play Tuesday, Wednesday, you have to win almost all the games,” Guardiola said. “Now it’s not very complicated. We don’t have 15, 20 games, now we have seven games left. It’s a final every single game. We have to win a lot of games to qualify, because Newcastle play just one game a week, and the quality of Aston Villa, and all the teams are involved, Chelsea and Nottingham [Forest].”
City play only Villa of their immediate Champions League during the run-in. Guardiola, asked whether he had a final tally in mind, joked: “With 21, we will be there, that’s for sure.”
Guardiola is without Erling Haaland, John Stones, Nathan Aké, Manuel Akanji and Rodri, and Phil Foden is a doubt. “They’re still injured,” the manager said. “It has happened all season. We adapt. You can see it as a problem or a challenge. You could see the position as a disaster, but it could be worse. I’m really satisfied for the way we’ve handled it.”
City will be looking to improve on their performance in last Sunday’s goalless Manchester derby. “Some spirit is back,” Guardiola said. “Some games were good – United no – and the spirit is there. The spirit will sustain us. Maybe we struggle in a game but the spirit has to be there. The main reason is we don’t have players, we had a lot of injuries. We couldn’t rotate, they couldn’t compete against each other and in certain moments we needed fight and we didn’t have legs. We didn’t have energy. I know they want it but they could not.”
