WHO: Leicester City vs Manchester City
What: English Premier League
Where: King Power Stadium, Leicester, United Kingdom
When: 12:30 p.m. (12:30 GMT) on Sunday
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Pep Guardiola insists he will not abandon struggling Manchester City as he tries to halt the champions’ rapid decline.
The Spaniard, whose team visit Leicester City on Sunday, has only recently joined signed a two-year contract extension But City’s poor form raises questions about its future. A nightmare run nine defeats in 13 gameswith just one win in this dismal period, sparked speculation that the City boss might decide to resign if he couldn’t find a solution to his team’s problems.
However, Guardiola, who has led City to six Premier League titles in the last seven seasons, is adamant he still has the hunger to turn things around.
“I’ll try, I’ll keep going. “Sometimes you think that the bad period will end sooner or that it would be easier to fix it, but it takes longer,” he told reporters ahead of Sunday’s game. “I won’t give up. I want to be here. I want to do it and given the situation we find ourselves in, we have to do it.
“Of course I want it, everyone wants it. I don’t want to disappoint my people in terms of the club, the fans, the people who love this club. I think we all want to do something good in our job and please people. This is undeniable, not a question mark.
“The biggest test is coming back, but we’ve done that before.”
Guardiola will not criticize the City crisis
Injuries were a major factor in City’s decline, leaving the team in seventh place in the Premier League.
Especially the gaping hole left by Ballon d’Or winner Rodri is recovering from a long-term knee injury. It wasn’t helped by the erratic form of the normally productive Erling Haaland in an inconsistent season, who missed a penalty in the final game that could have sealed City’s win over Everton.
Haaland has scored just once in his last seven games but Guardiola refused to blame the Norwegian striker or any of his teammates.
“My training does not involve complaining or pointing at others. It happened, it’s life, it’s football, so let’s try again,” he said.
“That’s why we were successful, because always is never enough, we will try again and again. That’s why we won a lot of titles.
“It was a game every three days and for many, many months and years it was win, win, win. Now we have to do the same when the results are not good.”
Lots of exercise ⬆️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/yumQgXPdfA
— Premier League (@premierleague) December 28, 2024
City still have doubts about the fitness of some players as they try to get back to winning ways at struggling Leicester, who have won just one of their last 11 games
“Sometimes you have injuries,” Guardiola said. “For many years we have been incredibly consistent, but now we are a bit down and the main reason for that is that so many key players are injured.
“But I saw the team spirit, how we trained this week, how focused they are and how they try to practice.”
News about the Leicester City team
Jordan Ayew, who is suspended after the striker received his fifth booking of the season in Leicester’s defeat to Liverpool in their last game.
Captain Jamie Vardy should be fit again after a minor knock, but Wout Faes misses the defense again.
Man City team news
The long-absent Rodri was joined on the touchline by Ruben Dias, John Stones, Ederson, Kyle Walker, Jack Grealish and Matheus Nunes in the 1-1 draw with Everton.
Head to head
This will be the 128th meeting between the clubs, of which City have won 64 times, while Leicester emerged victorious after 32 meetings.
City have won their last five league games, scoring ten goals in the last three of them, while Leicester could only end that run with a Community Shield win following their title-winning 2020/21 season.
Leicester’s last league win this season came with a 5-2 win at City and included a hat-trick from Vardy. The second leg at the King Power Stadium resulted in a 2-0 result, giving City the three points and beginning their current run of dominance over the Foxes in the league.
Where is your site currently?#FestiveFixtures pic.twitter.com/AT9MZPPnz2
— Premier League (@premierleague) December 28, 2024
