Pep Guardiola has played down Bernardo Silva's comment about Manchester City being "in a dark place" after they suffered a humiliating 4-1 defeat to Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday night.
For the first time since April 2018, the often-dominant Manchester City have lost three consecutive matches.
Last week, they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Spurs and three days later, their 32-game unbeaten run in the Premier League came to an end following a lacklustre display against Bournemouth.
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It has been a difficult spell for the Citizens made even worse by Tuesday night's defeat to Ruben Amorim's Sporting in the Champions League.
After goals from Viktor Gyokores [3] and Maxi Araujo sealed a historic win for the Lisbon-based side, a deflated Bernardo Silva made some headline-grabbing comments in his post-match interview.
Speaking to TNT Sports, he said: "It's disappointing because we're a bit in a dark place right now. Everything looks to be going in the wrong way.
"Even when we are playing well we don't score our chances and we concede too easily. We need to get better very quickly otherwise it will be very difficult to come back from these losses.
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"It's difficult to find reasons for what is happening to us. It just looks like this team is going the wrong way now."
He added: "Our injured players need to come back because we need them and it's just not good enough tonight."
Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, was far more positive about City's performance against Sporting and disagreed with Silva.
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"I don't agree with him [Bernardo]. We are not in the dark side," he said. "We played really bad against Bournemouth but really good here. The only regret is conceding the third and fourth - the penalties were not necessary.
"We knew it would be a tough season at the start and this is what it is. I like it, I love it, I want to face it and lift my players. Life is like this. We continue."
Guardiola added: "What should we do? We go back to Manchester and prepare for the game at Brighton. I won't give up, that's for sure."
The Spaniard conceded that his side were "emotionally not stable enough" against the Portuguese side. "We had a fantastic first half, now we are struggling to score. We create and concede when the opponents don't do much," he said.
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"At 2-1 down, many things can happen. Emotionally we were not stable enough and in this competition you have to be stable. Sporting made a good moment, they were fast and scored. It can happen."
Thoughts on Bernardo Silva's comments after Tuesday night's game? Let us know in the comments.
Topics: Manchester City, Premier League, Pep Guardiola, Bernardo Silva, Sporting CP
Jack Kenmare