Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has been speaking to the media before Saturday’s Premier League game against Aston Villa (kick-off 12:30 GMT).
Here are the key lines from his news conference:
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Key defender Ruben Dias will miss the Christmas period: “[He will be out for] three or four weeks. It was a muscular injury. [After] 75 minutes against Manchester United, he felt something. He is so strong and he stayed on the pitch and now he is injured.”
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Fellow defenders on Manuel Akanji and John Stones: “Manu and John are back training over the past two days, which is good for us.” Guardiola added he is unsure if they will be able to start on Saturday.
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Guardiola does not think any players will leave during the winter transfer window. However, he was uncertain about the future of players whose contracts expire next summer: “I don’t know – that will be at the end of the season. At the end of the season, we will see the situation. What I want is my players back [from injury]. My feeling is the squad is really good – it is not if they are good or bad players. We lost two important figures for a while. At the end of the season the club and myself will decide what is best for the team”
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On handling tough times: “I handle the good moments – I handle good the bad moments. I have had bad ones in my career as a manager but we were able to come back and now it takes longer. I take experience with that. I have had 40 days of bad days in terms of results. That is the truth when you compare to eight years which is much better. There have been eight years of incredible [results] and now we have 40-45 days of [bad results].”
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On his mood: “I am fine. I am a normal person with feelings like all of us. When a situation is going well, we are better and when it is not going well professionally, we are more [focused] on what we have to do.”
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On if he learned anything from City’s loss last time they played at Villa Park: “When they came back here, we beat them 4-1. [Do] you have to analyse all the times we drop or lose points? We win more than we lose. Of course we lost there – they were better by far. They came here – we were better. Why do you have to compare what happened there? The past is the past. This is a new moment [and] you have to deal with it.”
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On how well Villa have balanced Premier League and Champions League commitments this season: “I’m not surprised. Top, excellent manager. [They had good success] qualifying for the Champions League and the results in the Champions League speak for themselves. They are handling it well because when I have been in many clubs handling both competitions, they have done really well.”
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