We fell to our second successive Premier League loss at Brighton on Saturday, with defeats in the Carabao Cup and Champions League also fresh in the mind.
Rodrigo, Ruben Dias, John Stones, Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku were all not fit enough to travel to Brighton, while Kevin De Bruyne, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake made the bench despite not being fully fit.
We remain very much alive in the Premier League and Champions League – with Guardiola’s team second in the English top-flight and comfortably in the play-off spots of the continental competition.
Brighton 2-1 City | Match report
While City have kicked on in the second half of each of the last four league campaigns to win the title, the Catalan insists that will only be possible this time with more fully fit options to pick from.
“Results can be similar. The point is we don’t have the players. All four central defenders are injured,” he began in his post-match press conference on the south coast.
“Rodri, the best player, is not there. De Bruyne away from his best. Doku injured, Jack injured. In one game we can do it but to be consistent we cannot. The second half can use Manu, Nathan and Ruben.
“Last moments to change the game we can use Doku. Don’t misunderstand me, it looks like I’m complaining about the players we played but we played really good.
“But to play previous seasons we had the squad. Now we don’t have it. We have to survive with that. We have to live with that.”
Watch the full press conference above...
