Pep Guardiola has vowed to hit back next season after accepting his Manchester City side have lost their edge this term.

City have endured an underwhelming campaign having fallen well off the pace in the Premier League and struggled in the Champions League.

That has been hard to stomach for a team that has won 18 trophies since Guardiola took charge in 2016 but the Spaniard will fight on.

Guardiola said: “We are not the best positioned in the circumstances, absolutely. I’m not stupid enough to not know what are our standards and level. Everybody knows it.

“Still, I believe they are a fantastic group of players, as we have proven in seven, eight, nine years. For two months of bad results, I’m not going to change the opinion.

“But I saw it many times – three months ago, two months ago, that this season we are going to suffer, and it’s happened.

“Still, next season we’ll be back, really.

“Now, take time. It’s a question of survive, qualify, fight for the title if it’s possible, otherwise accept the reality that it’s completely different than we had in the last eight or nine years.

“In as much we accept it, but never forget who we are, how good we are, we will move forward.

“The normality is what we have done. That I’m pretty sure of, but this has made me realise even better now that what we have done was exceptional.”

City are in a battle both to stay in this season’s Champions League, and qualify for the competition again next time around.

They are currently fifth in the Premier League, 12 points behind leaders Liverpool having played a game more, and with fourth-placed Chelsea visiting the Etihad Stadium in a crunch clash this weekend.

They then host Club Brugge on Wednesday in a match they must win to avoid elimination from the Champions League.

Despite the situation, Guardiola remains optimistic of turning the season around.

He said: “Many big clubs, like Chelsea right now, are not in the Champions League. (Manchester) United are not the Champions League. It can happen to us, definitely, not being there.

“But we have to try to do it because we are in time. We are in time to qualify for the Champions League, we are in time to fight for the Premier League, the FA Cup final, to recover who we are.”

City have battled against numerous injury problems this season, most notably with influential midfielder Rodri ruled out for the majority of the campaign.

While Guardiola does not think qualifying for the Champions League would equate to winning a trophy, he does think, given the circumstances, it could be considered a success.

He said: “Equivalent achievement, no, but there are seasons where there are a lot of difficulties. It’s how you stand up and do it.

“I remember Jose (Mourinho) saying finishing second was a bigger success. I understand completely.

“When Rodri is here, when the defenders are here, when many players are here, we will not be 25th in the Champions League.

“Sometimes when you live these situations and then you achieve it is a bigger success.”