SportEPL: I laugh when people say Guardiola is finished – Maresca

 

SportEPL: I laugh when people say Guardiola is finished – Maresca

Chelsea manager, Enzo Maresca, has laughed off critics who claim Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola is “finished”.

 

Guardiola is enduring the worst ever spell in his managerial career with the Premier League champions.

 

City currently sit in seventh place on the league table.

 

After 17 fixtures, Guardiola’s men are four points behind Nottingham Forest in fourth position and one point behind fifth-placed Bournemouth.

 

But Maresca has insisted that his former boss, who won the last four league titles, knows exactly what is wrong with his team.

 

“It makes me laugh when critics claim Pep is finished,” Maresca said.

 

I spoke to Pep… he is completely calm and knows exactly what has happened.

 

“If you are involved in football you can see the amount of injuries they have, this is not normal.”

 

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has insisted that there are no guarantees the Premier League champions will finish in the top four given their wretched recent form

Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola says Manchester City could miss out on a top four finish

Pep Guardiola reckons Manchester City’s chances of qualifying for next season’s Champions League are now hanging in the balance because of their rotten form.

 

The Premier League champions have slumped to seventh in the table after winning just one of their last eight league matches; a run which has sparked fresh speculation over Guardiola’s long-term future.

 

That run has also all but put City out of the title race due to the 12 point gap between them and Liverpool – and Guardiola now admits they could struggle to even make the top four unless they can end their current malaise quickly.

 

The Catalan coach said in his latest press conference: “When I said before, people laughed. They said, ‘qualifying for the Champions League is not a big success’.

 

“But I know it because it happens with clubs in this country. They were dominant for many years, and after they were many years not qualifying for the Champions League.

 

“The one team that has been in the Champions League for the past years has been Manchester City. Now we are at risk, of course we are. Definitely.”

 

Nottingham Forest currently occupy the fourth and final Champions League spot with Arsenal and then Chelsea above them, just behind Arne Slot’s side.

 

 

Manchester City have dropped to sixth in the table after winning just one of their last eight Premier League fixtures

The champions also find themselves behind both Bournemouth and Aston Villa in the table ahead of the festive fixtures. And while some may expect the likes of Forest and the Cherries to fade away, Guardiola says that the teams in and around them – including some of their rivals who are lower in the table but expected to rise – mean that qualifying for the Champions League again is not the foregone conclusion some may think.

 

He added: “There are a lot of contenders. For every club, it is so important and if we are not winning games, we will be out.

 

“If we don’t qualify it is because we don’t deserve it, because we were not prepared and because we had a lot of problems and didn’t solve them.”