Pep Guardiola Man City admission speaks volumes about Liverpool Premier League title race

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Pep Guardiola watching his Man City side from the dugout.(Image: Getty Images)

Pep Guardiola has claimed it's 'impossible' for his Manchester City side to still rely on the players who delivered glory in his early seasons at the Etihad Stadium - suggesting their new crop will need time to gel.

The comments might give Liverpool more reason to believe they can beat the eight-time Premier League champions to the title for a second season running.

Guardiola's first title win came with a record 100 points back in the 2017/18 season.



The Catalan was able to call on his predecessors' signings at that period, not to mention high-quality additions of his own; including Ederson, Ilkay Gundogan and Gabriel Jesus.

"I would love to have the players of eight years ago, seven years ago, six years ago, but it's impossible," Guardiola said ahead of Sunday afternoon's Manchester derby.

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"In any club there are always changes and, of course, when you change 10 players across a period of four or five months everything needs to be settled, fixed and coordinated.

"We are doing very, very good things but, still, we have to be more consistent than we have been - but step-by-step, we'll do it."

Bernardo Silva, John Stones and Phil Foden are the only players remaining from that 2017/18 title win with Foden only playing five times that season.

Kyle Walker left in July - and Ederson followed suit in September - with Gundogan also bringing his second City stint to a close on the same day as the Brazilian goalkeeper.

Guardiola's comments might come as a surprise, if only for how they might be received by his current players.

After a 4-0 win at Wolves on the opening weekend of the season, City have lost back-to-back games to go into the derby one point behind neighbours Manchester United - and six adrift of league leaders Liverpool.

Manchester City have spent big on the likes of Gianluigi Donnarumma this summer.(Image: FIGC via Getty Images)

This is despite a pair of big-spending windows, with more than £350million spent on new signings.

City have managed to recoup £100m on sales this summer, with a chunk of that coming from James McAtee's move to Nottingham Forest - while recent big-money arrivals include goalkeepers James Trafford and Gianluigi Donnarumma, plus playmaker Rayan Cherki.

Last season, City's autumn slump felt like an outlier, if only for its dramatic nature.

Guardiola's teams have dropped off before, most notably finishing 18 points behind Liverpool in the 2019/20, but even then they finished the season with 102 goals - the third-highest in Premier League history.

While Guardiola suggests his squad will take time to hit top gear, Liverpool have had no such issues integrating some of their new arrivals.

Hugo Ekitike has hit the ground running since joining from Eintracht Frankfurt - and there's a hope Alexander Isak can use his Premier League experience to enjoy a strong first season after his £125m move from Newcastle.

Hugo Ekitike has hit the ground running since he signed for Liverpool.(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

The majority of City's arrivals in the last three windows have joined with no Premier League experience, but that shouldn't be the be all and end all when it comes to adapting to the Catalan’s system.

Erling Haaland and Josko Gvardiol have taken little time to get up to speed in their first tastes of English football, but Matheus Nunes and Kalvin Phillips found things much tougher early on - despite joining from Premier League clubs.

On Sunday afternoon, we should get a better idea of how much attention it's worth giving to Guardiola's words.

City could end the weekend nine points behind Liverpool, but there's also a chance they close the gap to three if results go their way.

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Liverpool, for their part, may prefer to pay little heed to the City manager and focus on their own responsibilities.

If they never let their rivals close to within a win of catching them, Arne Slot's players won't need to worry about how long City's squad takes to gel.