Pep Guardiola makes 'it's Liverpool' claim as Man City manager's ambitions are crystal clear

Pep Guardiola has told of his determination to add more silverware to Manchester City's trophy cabinet.

City return to domestic action this evening when they make the trip to Everton. The Etihad Stadium outfit arrive back on English soil after being crown Club World Cup champions following a 4-0 victory over Brazilian outfit Fluminense in Saudi Arabia.

City won the treble last season, claiming a fifth Premier League crown under Guardiola, the FA Cup and a maiden Champions League. However, they've endured stuttering form so far this term. As things stand, City are fifth in the table and eight points behind leaders Liverpool albeit with two games in hand.

Guardiola believes that the Cityzens' setbacks they have suffered - including finishing second to the Reds in the 2019-20 season as well as being knocked of the Champions League and FA Cup by Jurgen Klopp's side in 2017-18 and 2021-22 respectively - is what has helped deliver success in the long term.

“I reflect on the five Premier Leagues, four Carabao Cups, FA Cups and all the semi-finals where we compete really well," the City manager said via the club's website. “But it’s nice to see now all the five trophies and people taking pictures, then you realise the amount of work and effort behind them.

“It’s nice, I have the feeling the job is really done. I thought about it when we won the Champions League but then Super Cup, we didn’t have it, Club World Cup, we didn’t have it, now we have everything. Now it’s (time) to go to the bookshop to buy one and start to write again. This is what we have to do.

"The reason why we are here, I said this to the team, is not Istanbul or Inter (winning the Champions League). It’s not why we’re here. It’s Monaco, it’s Liverpool, it’s Tottenham, it’s Lyon, it’s the Champions League final against Chelsea loss, the last minute against Real Madrid when it was closed with five minutes.

“It hurts in that moment but now it helps us, that helped us to win against Inter. It’s a process at a Club who had never [been] used [to] it. For Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, the big, big clubs in European competition, they’re used to that. But for us everything was new, to feel how we can do it and believe and win it.

“It’s not just: ‘Bring Pep here and immediately it happens' it’s a process to change it. Sometimes we were close, sometimes we were further back, but in the end it’s a process. That’s why we arrived here to finish eight years of the job with a lot of disappointments but it's part of life and the sport. That makes us feel that: ‘OK, let’s go for the last one’ and the players did it again.”