**Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has issued an honest verdict on his side’s season so far as they compete with Arsenal for the Premier League title.**
The Blues’ title hopes were handed a major blow at the weekend as Enzo Fernandez’s 94th minute equaliser salvaged a point for Chelsea in a 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium as City drew for the second time in as many games in 2026.
A visit from Brighton on Wednesday evening is next up for Guardiola and co, who saw Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol join the injury shortlist, with the former set for four to six weeks out whilst the latter faces surgery this week as he prepares for four to five months on the sidelines after suffering a tibial fracture on his right leg.
City have since recalled academy defender Max Alleyne from a loan at Watford and drawn up emergency plans to sign Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace as they look to bolster a depleted backline that is likely to feature Nathan Ake and Abdukodir Khusanov at centre-half against Brighton.
Guardiola is still missing Omar Marmoush and Rayan Ait-Nouri, the pair of whom are away at the Africa Cup of Nations, as executives at the Etihad Stadium mull over possible additions to the first-team ranks as the January transfer window progresses.
Speaking in a press conference after Sunday’s frustrating draw against Chelsea, Guardiola was asked whether he likes the challenge of missing players and correcting. “I prefer not to have that challenge, to be honest. But it is what it is,” the Catalan said.
“To fight for the titles or being there, it’s a demanding schedule for every season, and unfortunately it happened last season, in November and this season happened in January a little bit. But we have enough, we don’t have much, we have first-team 13, 14 players. Some of them are coming back, and go for it.”
City are still competing on four fronts and are expected to announce the signing of Antoine Semenyo from Bournemouth at the weekend, with the 26-year-old Ghana forward set to undergo a medical in Manchester on Thursday morning.
On how he thinks the season is going, Guardiola added: “Top, top, top. I don’t have any, any, any zero, zero, zero, zero complaints about my players. Completely the opposite. That’s why what I said comparing to the last season is completely, completely different.”
Quizzed on whether the current campaign is so far going better than he thought it would have, the 54-year-old said: “I know when you play in Sunderland you come back at 2:30am, such a demanding game, we knew it, we made an extraordinary second-half. We made four or five really, honestly, chances in front of the six-yard box, in the area of the penalty spot.
“And we could not score, coming back at 2:30am here (in Manchester) and in less than three days, come back against Chelsea. And we thought okay, in the last 20 minutes, I know the fatigue – the few, few players that could not sustain the rhythm of the game like we could not have done because he’s injured – Josko (Gvardiol) one substitution.
“After Ruben (Dias), another substitution, we could not make two or three that we need to make it to refresh and control it a little bit better at the ball. We didn’t have clear chances, but the three against two, four against three, two against one, to a better pass would be one against one against the keeper, and we could not finalise, maybe for the fatigue.
“Sometimes the creative players need to be fresh in the legs, fresh in the mind to take the right decisions. And we could not do it, but that is part of the game. So, no certainty. But at the end of that, they did absolutely everything.
“That’s why I know how good we have been in these last two games, I know it and just to continue knowing that, of course, to sustain for every three days, three days, three days, three days, three days. A lot of games with a few players will be tough. But if the spirit is in the right spot, like we didn’t have last season, we can have this season, we will be there.”
City can ill-afford many more slip-ups in the title race between now and May, with Arsenal showing next to no signs of frailty after picking up back-to-back wins against Aston Villa and Bournemouth to begin 2025 with six points out of six.