Pep Guardiola's mood change suggests Man City are ready for Liverpool's best form

Pep Guardiola's pre-match press conference on Friday was short and snappy, so much so that the opening section was over and done with inside five minutes.

Speaking to the media ahead of Manchester City's Premier League clash with Watford on Saturday, Guardiola was calm and to-the-point, if not quite as chirpy as he has been over the past few weeks. Light-heartedness and sarcasm seemed to be Guardiola's antidote for the high-pressure and stress-inducing 11-day period that saw City face Liverpool and Atletico Madrid twice each across three different competitions.

City won only one of those games and suffered FA Cup semi-final elimination for the third year running, but they still managed to maintaining their lead at the top of the Premier League table and progress to the semi-finals of the Champions League.

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Guardiola was largely happy with how his team performed in those games — bar a calamitous first-half against Liverpool at Wembley — given the mental and physical demands of those fixtures and the quality of the opposition.

Now that City have navigated that daunting mini-schedule, it's time for the real home stretch. With six league games remaining and Liverpool in seemingly invincible form, Guardiola has openly admitted that his side cannot afford to drop any points. With everything on the line and barely 72 hours between each game, there is no longer time for messing and joking around. But Guardiola wouldn't have it any other way.

"I love it," said the City boss when asked this pivotal stage of the campaign. "Fight for knockout stages, every game is important. It means we have done many good things.

"We can't drop points but they [Liverpool]