What do we expect of this Manchester City team? Perfection, really

Given Pep Guardiola looked like he had clawed at his cranium in the search for answers during the 3-3 draw against Feyenoord in the Champions League on Tuesday, and then clumsily joked about self-harming afterwards, it was good, if nothing else, that he was in the frame of mind yesterday to make light of what is very obviously a dire situation for Manchester City .

Advertisement As Liverpool closed in on a deserved 2-0 win over City, the Anfield crowd became the latest to sing, Youre getting sacked in the morning at the oppositions manager.

So Guardiola turned, smiled and held up six fingers; one for each of the Premier League titles he has won in eight completed seasons with City.

And at the final whistle, he invited the travelling supporters to show the same defiance, holding up those fingers again.

When asked about it later, he seemed more surprised, for whatever reason, that the Liverpool fans had sung it at all.

But he accepted the situation all the same.

When you win, you laugh, he said.

When you lose, they laugh.

Guardiola has been accepting of this situation for a while now and there is no shying away from his sides ongoing troubles following a sixth loss in seven and seventh game in a row without a win.

We dont have the pace in the middle right now and they are stronger in the duels, he admitted.

That they could apply to most top teams, not just Liverpool, and the pace in the middle is probably going to need to be brought in via the transfer market as even the players four-in-a-row champions City are waiting to get back from injury do not have the dynamism and physicality this side lacks.

You can call me delusional, Guardiola said, as he insisted that the fight his team showed in certain moments on Sunday will be the foundation of their eventual revival.

They surely wont now win a fifth straight Premier League, not just because of this result but because of the problems that were evident during it, before it, and probably after it.

The gap to Liverpool at the top of the table is 11 points already.

GO DEEPER The Briefing: Liverpool 2 Man City 0 - Slot's side dominate struggling champions to go nine points clear Guardiola acknowledged that his team are far from at their prime at the moment Its not necessary to say but, if nothing else, this recent bad stretch should put into context how good that prime was.

What do we expect of this City team? Perfection, really.

Were this run not happening, the next opportunity to take stock of everything Guardiola and his players have achieved would have been after he finally leaves the club.

Advertisement It is likely, actually, that were Guardiola to depart having claimed five or six league titles in a row, it would have felt too otherworldly to properly explain.

Too easy, to borrow a word he really hates, when applied to how his City team win.

You know at the start of the season when everyone says, City will win the league and the rest have to fight for the Champions League? I said, Oh my god, he said after the match on Sunday.

It looks like what we have done in the past is easy, but I know with Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool that we beat, or Arsenal in the last seasons, how strong they are.

But now, we are not as strong as we were.

That is the reality, for many, many, many circumstances.

The problem is that it is as if nothing Guardiola does seems real.

He is almost cursed in the sense that the more his teams win, the easier doing so looks and the less credit he gets.

He has been talking a lot recently about how rare it is for his team to have stayed at the top all these years, becoming the first team in English mens football history to do four titles in a row .

I think, honestly, from the depths of my heart, that is normal, he said during his pre-Liverpool press conference on Friday.

This is normal.

Maybe not losing five games or whatever, losing three games in the Premier League, but maybe it is more unusual to win four Premier Leagues in a row, right? But it is not just recently: he has been saying it for years but nobody listened, because City were winning anyway.

Remember when he would mention how all the Premier League champions going back to 2013 had fallen off in the season afterwards, sometimes not even finishing in the Champions League spots? In a decade, we have been here, he also said on Friday, not to remind people about what can happen, but what is actually happening now.

Tell me which team around the world has been as consistent in 10 years...

It doesnt exist.

Not in NBA , not in tennis, not in golf, not in any sports.

Advertisement A big fall-off has happened to City before but it came pre-Guardiola not on his watch.

Whereas other champions have only rediscovered the motivation to win again having lost their crown a year later, this team have fought to stay there year after year.

Some people may not like to hear it there is always talk about money, about ownership, about the state of the Premier League, about the 115 charges but what City have done, regardless of all of those factors, is far from easy to do.

You can win a title with money, and with a bit of other help, but you cannot stay at the top of a league like this for so long without the fight and determination, as well as the tactical innovations, that you only get from the very, very best teams.

If it could be conjured up from balance sheets and sponsorship deals, why is it not working for City now? It is no consolation to the team or the fans, but the problems that have beset even this team should serve to humanise them in some way.

And with Guardiola having signed to stay for another couple of years, it might even serve as much-needed inspiration that they will be back again.

(Top photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.