The 2-1 victory over Nottingham Forest in the Premier League recently helped Man City have a streak of 8 consecutive wins in all competitions and ensured Guardiola's team closed a perfect December.
Currently, Man City is fiercely competing with Arsenal and Aston Villa for the Premier League title. They completely shed the disappointing image of last season, to return to challenge all opponents in the number 1 league in England.
Looking back at the year 2025 ending well and heading towards a promising year 2026, Pep Guardiola emphasized that the seeds of Man City's revival were formed from the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup in the US.
Although The Blues' campaign ended in a regrettable defeat to Al-Hilal in the round of 16, Guardiola said that the trip to the US brought a new look to Man City's squad to rebuild and adjust after a difficult 2024-2025 season.
The Spanish strategist pointed out the factor that helped Man City return strongly in the first half of the 2025-2026 season: "Energy, energy, energy. We lost that last season. People started to train better, play better when we were in the US. We need energy and a good environment.
When we lost to Al-Hilal, what made us uncomfortable was not not not winning the Club World Cup, but that we played too well there. It wasn't a vacation. I was annoyed because we played well there.
Everything went well during training, the players at Boca Raton, in front of the beach, everyone was happy, we had a lot of dinner, discussed a lot about what will happen this season.
Guardiola also revealed that the start of the season was not very smooth, when Man City lost to Spurs at home and then lost to Brighton away before the end of August 2025, not reducing the team's spirit of innovation and goals.
At that time, we still didn't clearly understand the players and didn't know how to coordinate best with them. Coaches are not magicians, when we do something, everything will be clear.
For example, I didn't expect Nico O'Reilly to have such an excellent performance. Sometimes you also have to recognize yourself and change a little, because we have new players, and opponents will approach us in different ways.
That's why sometimes you need time and victory to help promote this process, helping you take advantage of the time to become a better team," Guardiola said.
In the next match in the Premier League, Man City will meet newcomer Sunderland away from home.
