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Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola has bemoaned the congested schedule and believes it is responsible for the injury crisis that has hit his squad of recent.

The defending champions lost 2-1 away at Bournemouth over the weekend with key players Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne missing. The result places them second on the table and two points behind league leaders, Liverpool.

That was a second successive loss for City, who have failed to win five of their last 11 games across all competitions. The Spainard has admitted that the long run of fixtures is starting to take its toll on his players.

“In the past, the previous seasons, we played a lot of games,” he said. “Maybe when we go to the World [Club] Cup, arriving at the last stages of the competition, we’re going to play more than 70 games.

“And 70 games is like the NBA, but the NBA has four-month holidays, and we have three weeks, because it’s not this season, it comes from the previous season, the previous season, the previous season.

“When that happens, you have injuries for a long time.”

The fixture schedule remains unrelenting for City heading into another week, as they travel to face Sporting CP in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday night, before returning to England for a top-flight clash against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.