Pep Guardiola explains why ‘everybody needs’ the international break at Man City

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After the latest weekend of Premier League football came to a close, Manchester City remain in second place in the Premier League table — sitting five points behind Arne Slot’s Liverpool.

Pep Guardiola’s side suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.

A convincing display in the first half that was rewarded with an opening goal from Erling Haaland indicated that Manchester City were set to return to winning ways.

However, goals from Joao Pedro and Matt O’ Riley capped off a heroic comeback from Fabian Huerzeler’s side.

The Catalan has now lost four games in a row for the first time in his managerial career.

Arsenal had the chance to leapfrog Manchester City in the league table but they dropped more points in their 1-1 draw against Chelsea on Sunday.

• READ MORE: Man City Premier League fixture list for 2024/25 season in full

Pep Guardiola claims Man City need international break for injury woes to ease

Considering City are still well within the title race, in theory at least, there should not be too much of a cause for concern for those at the Etihad Stadium.

However, with Liverpool continuing to win game after game, the Sky Blues will be aware that they cannot afford to drop too many more points going forward.

In his latest press conference, Pep Guardiola revealed that a key reason why the international break has come at the perfect time for Manchester City is due to their injury woes easing with time.

Guardiola via HaytersTV: “I think everybody needs it, yeah. I think it will be good for all of us, for the players, for ourselves but especially, Ruben [Dias] comes back and hopefully John Stones comes back and hopefully, the other players.”

It was recently reported that Manchester City’s view on January signings is that they are happy with their current squad and will only reinvest in the market if they spot a player in the market who they cannot afford to miss out on. The feeling within the City camp is described as one where recent results have not led to any “panic” behind closed doors.

City have suffered several injuries so far this season — Rodri headlining their issues as well as Kevin De Bruyne, who is only fit to come off the bench, Oscar Bobb, Ruben Dias, John Stones, Jack Grealish, Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji and Jeremy Doku.

Kyle Walker says there’ll be “light at the end of the tunnel” for Man City after international break

Kyle Walker is confident that his City side will bounce back after the international break.

Walker told Manchester City’s official website: “Listen, there’ll be light at at the end of the tunnel and this isn’t going to win us the Premier League, this period and it isn’t going to lose us the Premier League. Obviously, ideally, we would want to be sitting at the top and not losing the games we’ve lost. But it’s football.”

“But as I said in the interview, the teams in the mid-block of the table are getting better, they’re spending money, they’re getting better and they’re trying to break us down with the crown that we’ve won over the last four years. This has to make us better as players, better as people and make sure that we get through this tough patch.”

Walker will be hoping that he can lead his team’s potential resurgence after the international break.

With City set to face Tottenham Hotspur upon the return of club football, the former Spurs right-back would be determined to help his team make a statement.

For the time being, Pep Guardiola will be waiting for some of his injured players to return to full fitness as his Manchester City side must get out of the rut they find themselves in sooner rather than later.