Pep Guardiola's ruthless Man City Christmas message amid squad party and Champions League 'risk'

Pep Guardiola appears to have no problem playing the role of Scrooge this Christmas if it means Manchester City can turn their form around and salvage their Champions League qualification hopes - which he admits is at risk.

Guardiola will call his players in for Christmas Day training ahead of their Boxing Day clash with Everton, although he defended their recent squad party with families as essential for team harmony.

City's run of one win in 12 has seen them slide to seventh at Christmas, and they could even slip into the bottom half of the Premier League table with defeat against an Everton side with one defeat in six and five clean sheets. That would take an unlikely set of results, but this season has shown that the unlikely results are sometimes the more likely.

Not only are City struggling, but so are Manchester United at Tottenham, with Arsenal failing to mount a serious title challenge and a top five at Christmas including surprise packages Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth.

Guardiola accepts that City are not just facing a reality where they will not retain their title, but could struggle to finish in the top four for the first time in 14 years, missing out on the lucrative finances that come with a Champions League place.

"Now we’re at risk, of course we are, definitely," he admitted on Christmas Eve.

"You have to get points and win games otherwise we won’t qualify for the Champions League and if we don’t qualify it is because we don’t deserve it … because we were not prepared, because we had a lot of problems and didn’t solve those problems and find a way to win games.

"There are of lot of contenders to be there. For every club it is so important and if we are not winning games, we will be out."

Guardiola