Pablo Zabaleta says Manchester City’s stars can’t let the prospect of an uncertain future under Pep Guardiola ruin a dream season.
But news of Guardiola’s appointment and Pellegrini’s planned departure has come at a crucial time when City are still challenging in all four competitions.
Their Premier League title bid suffered a setback on Saturday with a 3-1 loss at home to leaders Leicester City and Zabaleta said of the managerial situation: “We need to deal with it.
No excuses, but we are not going to throw in the towel. You learn from every match and from this one too. Let's forge ahead!
— Sergio Kun Aguero (@aguerosergiokun) February 6, 2016
“The club decided to announce this now after so many rumours, so we really understand this. Now it’s just time to finish in the best way we can do this season.
“We are all behind Manuel. He’s been great for this football club. So he will continue in the way he has done for the last few years, nothing will change for him.
“And then we’ll see at the end of the season with the new manager coming in. We suspect changes, but it’s normal. Now is not the right time to talk about the future because there’s a lot of time for this. We just need to be 100 per cent focused on the next games.”
Those games include a home test on Sunday against a Spurs side also in contention for the title, an FA Cup fifth-round tie at Chelsea, a Champions League last-16 test with Dynamo Kiev and a League Cup final showdown with Liverpool.
Manchester City against the top six this season:
— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) February 6, 2016
L
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D
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L pic.twitter.com/CVvfFK6ERi
And, despite having seven first-team players out through injury, with David Silva the latest after an ankle knock, Zabaleta says it is time for the team to raise their game.
“It’s been a very difficult season in terms of injuries and obviously now it’s a period with big games coming up, so of course you need your whole squad fit, your best players in their best form,” he added.
“The strength of the squad is to be ready for the next three months that will be crucial for this team because we are playing in four competitions at the moment.
“I know it’s really hard but now all we can do is be focused on the next games. We have another huge game next week against Spurs so we have a long week now to rest.
“In the last 10 days we’ve played two more games than Leicester and obviously in the way we are playing at the moment it’s hard, but we need to accept that we are Manchester City, we aspire to win as many trophies as we can and we’ll see at the end of the season.
“In this league you cannot give up so early, we need to keep working hard and just try to be back in our best form to win the games. We have the Champions League coming up as well so we need to reach again our best form and obviously you need your best playing their best football.”
City have not won against a top-six side this season, but Zabaleta added: “Every single game in this league is very hard. There’s nothing mentally, or nothing to talk about not winning the big games.
“We must give credit to Leicester. I think they were a really solid team, they deserve the three points.”
