Sunday 15 January 2017 17:59, UK
Man City manager Pep Guardiola says his side will only work harder to rediscover their winning touch after their 4-0 defeat to Everton.
It was the biggest defeat the Spaniard has ever suffered as a manager in a league match, and now sees them 10 points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea.
But despite a lacklustre second-half performance, Guardiola insists that his side will continue to work hard as they look to get back into the title race.
"I suffer for my players. Exceptional situations over the last seven years have always been there and always winning is exceptional but sometimes it is living this kind of situation," he told Sky Sports.
"It is not for me that it is hard because like all the managers and teams in the world, they try to do their best and are fighting and the managers work as much as possible.
"The only way I know, like all football players and as a manager right now, is to work harder. Now we have one week, you think about what you can do to be better.
"In the bad moments we have to be close. I have said to the players to be positive because you have done fantastic things and for many reasons, we didn’t get what I think we deserve, but I think all the managers can say that. We are going to try and keep going."
Man City arguably shaded the opening half where Everton went ahead with their first shot on target, but ran away with the game with three goals in the second period with the final two coming from teenagers Tom Davies and Ademola Lookman.
Guardiola reflected on his side's lack of cutting edge during the game as they conceded the opening goals, which he says has been a theme since the previous meeting with Everton in November.
"We made a good performance in the first half. We created enough chances to score a goal and then they arrive once and they score," he added.
"In the second moment at the start of the second half, they scored again and that is tough mentally for the players. We insisted for a long time that things started against Everton at home when we missed two penalties and after that it was many games where we created chances and do not score.
"With the 2-0 score, they defended with the players behind and used the counter-attack and everything that happened in the last minute is the last minute.
"The consequence of the game is that it is an example of many of the games that have happened this season.
"In football, you sometimes don’t need to do many things to win the game so they arrive once to score the goal and we arrived many times.
"It is not today that it is worse, it is almost all the season with these things. It is tough to once again handle the situation."
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