Guardiola vows to fight Premier League slide before Anfield trip

Pep Guardiola insisted on Friday night he will face up to the challenge of reviving his Manchester City side after their horror run and admits his past successes are buying him time.

'People say, "Pep, why is he not in trouble? Why is he not sacked?",' said Guardiola, whose team have lost five of their last six games ahead of Sunday's clash at Liverpool.

'But what we have done over the last eight years is why I have this margin.

'The people here rely on me. The moment I feel I am not positive for the club, another one will come. The club will take the solution, the decision they have to take. But I wanted the opportunity to try.

'I don't want to run away. I want to make a rebuild of the team in many aspects from now until the end of the season and next season, to try to continue up there. I have to prove myself now.'

Guardiola promised City will recover.

'We will be back,' he said. 'I don't know when. But you can judge the situation we are in. After the team has controlled the Premier League for many, many years, it's normal what's going on. Accept it as a complete normality.

'Maybe the exception was in the past (winning four consecutive titles), not what happened now.'

City would fall 11 points behind leaders Liverpool if they lost at Anfield on Sunday and Guardiola suggested that gap would be insurmountable.

'With the situation we have it is not realistic to think about a big, big target,' he added on the title race.