Manchester City exits the Champions League: The future is bright, says Pep Guardiola

This seven-match series will define City’s season on all four fronts – losing twice to Real Madrid means their chances of winning silverware have been cut to three.

That could go down to two on Sunday with a huge clash against Arsenal, who are eager to redeem their ‘almost men’ marks by ending a drought that extends into 2020.

“on monday [after Carabao Cup final] Guardiola said: “I hope we wake up and it will be a sunny day. It is not a decisive match, it is a football match, and we will try to win with a good performance.”

“We will be competing against the best team in England so far, the best team in Europe because look at their results in the group stage, they were in first place and lost three or four games all season. We will challenge them and we have to see how we compete with them.”

City were surprisingly held to a 1-1 draw by relegation strugglers West Ham, leaving them nine points off the top of the Premier League with eight games remaining – and a massive effort will be required to overturn that deficit.

The FA Cup is no formality either, with City hosting rivals Liverpool in the quarter-finals on Saturday 4 April after the international break, with league matches immediately following against Chelsea and Arsenal.

“After a week or two, we play against them in the Premier League, it is a good mirror to see what we have to do to achieve it,” Guardiola said. [like] they. I’m old enough to see that one football match is not a great happiness or loss is the end of the world, it’s just a game.

“In the end, the results were not good except for Newcastle, but I have a feeling that we are an exceptional team with many, many good things that I like.

“We are still incomplete, we are not aware in certain moments and sections, we have to be more decisive but my feeling is that it is a matter of time.”