Pep Guardiola Addresses Player Injuries, Team Form, and Upcoming Aston Villa Match

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola addressed reporters ahead of Saturday’s Premier League fixture against Aston Villa, scheduled for a 12:30 GMT kick-off. Below are the main points from his press conference: Central defender Ruben Dias is expected to be unavailable throughout the Christmas period. Guardiola stated: “[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.” Regarding other defenders, Manuel Akanji and John Stones, Guardiola confirmed: “Manu and John are back training over the past two days, which is good for us.” He also mentioned uncertainty about their availability to start in Saturday’s match. Guardiola expressed his belief that no players will depart during the winter transfer window. Nevertheless, he remained undecided about the prospects of players whose agreements conclude next summer, stating: “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” Addressing the team’s recent challenging period, Guardiola remarked: “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].” Regarding his personal state, he commented: “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.” When asked if he gained insights from City’s previous defeat at Villa Park, Guardiola responded: “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.” Addressing Aston Villa’s ability to manage both Premier League and Champions League obligations this season, Guardiola stated: “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.”