Pep Guardiola relieved but admits his Man City era might have peaked

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says his side's recent struggles highlight how good most of his 500 games in charge have been.

But although he insisted his side will "come back" he admitted they might never hit the dizzy heights that his reign has witnessed.

City ended their five-game winless run with a 2-0 success at Leicester thanks to goals from Savinho and Erling Haaland as Guardiola celebrated a quincentenary of matches at the helm in style.

It was just their second Premier League victory since the end of October, which is a far cry from the side which has dominated English football for the last seven years under Guardiola.

"It is a lot of games, I am so pleased, and sharing it with the players and staff," the Catalan said.

"How the staff and players have been since day one to now is a lot. I know the last 13 or 14 games have not been really, really good, but the experiences before, we have to be so pleased with what we have done together.

"It is a lot of games and I couldn’t expect when I landed in the country.

"We have done a lot of things that will be in the memory forever and maybe this period, which feels like a 100 months, will make us realise how nice it was and hopefully we can come back, maybe not be what we were but more close than now."

City’s title hopes are probably already over, despite their penchant for long winning streaks after Christmas, but Guardiola insists 2024 has to be viewed as a success as they sealed a record-breaking fourth Premier League title in a row.

"In terms of results, we have had an unbelievable year," he said. "Twelve months of results is 12 months of results, not a month and a half or two months.

"It has been an unbelievable year, we got to the FA Cup final, won a fourth Premier League