Manchester City vs Tottenham: Pep Guardiola has no regrets and will fight for quadruple again

Guardiola will not abandon the domestic cup competitions for Premier League and Champions League success next season

Pep Guardiola has insisted that he does not regret going all out to win an unprecedented quadruple with Manchester City this season and said it is his “dream” to fight across four fronts again next year.

City’s bid to become the first English club to win four major trophies in a single season came to an end on Wednesday night, with a dramatic elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur.

Tottenham return to the Etihad on Saturday, hoping to frustrate City’s defence of the Premier League title. Guardiola’s side are two points behind Liverpool with five to play, though they hold a game in hand over the leaders.

City have already won the EFL Cup, beating Chelsea at Wembley in February, and will return to the national stadium next month to contest this season’s FA Cup final with Watford.

Unlike managers of other top clubs, Guardiola has fielded strong starting line-ups in the domestic cup competitions and admitted on Friday that teams like Liverpool, who dropped out of the cups early, had an advantage earlier in the season.

The City manager also conceded that having so many games at the tail-end of the campaign has affected City’s ability to fully prepare for matches, citing the first-leg defeat to Tottenham in particular.

However, despite his failure to make history, Guardiola said he does not intend to change his approach to the cups and wants his team to compete for all major honours once again next term.

“I don’t understand in my profession [how] to play one game and say I don’t want to win it, I don’t understand that. Never is it going to happen,” he said. “If I lose it’s because the opponent beat me or beat us. I’m not going to drop any competitions because maybe in the future it will be better.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. The present is this game and I will try to win. I will dream next season of fighting for the four titles, that’ll be my dream.”

“We cannot control that Kevin De Bruyne or [Benjamin] Mendy were injured for six months or seven months. It happened. I don’t know if it would be different in this stage if we had been better in physicality... I think we arrived quite well against Tottenham away from home.

“The only problem we had was time, because of a lot of competitions, and the schedule the way it is. If you lose a competition, of course you have more time. You can go to Abu Dhabi or Marbella [on a mid-season training camp] to have sun for a week. We didn’t have time to do that because we played in other competitions and I love it! I like it.”

Guardiola must now hope that his players respond by beating Tottenham at the Etihad on Saturday and securing the first of five victories they need in order to guarantee back-to-back Premier League titles.

Not Manchester United in 2009 have the champions defended their crown and Liverpool know that if City drop points on Saturday, they will be back in command of the title race ahead of an Easter Sunday trip to Cardiff.

When asked whether he felt his players would be motivated by Wednesday’s disappointment and channel their frustrations into Saturday’s rematch, Guardiola admitted he did not know.

“Before the game you don’t know how you will play,” he said. “You never know how you’ll react. We were out other times and we reacted well. But really I don’t know.”

“I am pretty sure I’m not going to analyse my performance or my side for one inch offside or one hypothetical handball, my analysis of my team for 11 months. If you expect that – say this is a good team or a bad team, success or not – you are not going to find me in that way.

“If it’s not enough we will try again next season or another manager in the future or other players, but I’m satisfied. Tomorrow I want to see the same from my players – even [if they are] hurt, in tough moments. That’s why we are professional. That’s why we live and incredible life in this incredible club we have to do it again.”