The Premier League champions fell to their first defeat of the season against Bournemouth at the weekend and the coach believes that the endless churn of games makes it difficult for his team to compete.

Guardiola said: "In the past, the previous seasons, we played a lot of games.

"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."

City are without key players such as Kevin de Bruyne and Rodri amid their injury crisis and Guardiola praised stars such as Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake for battling through the pain.

Guardiola added: "There are players that are not in the best way and they make an incredible effort to be here.

"So Manu [Akanji] and Nathan [Ake] were not in really good condition, so until the last moment I didn’t know Nathan could play and he says: ‘No, I want to try, I want to try.’"

However, Guardiola did suggested that De Bruyne could feature in City's Champions League against Sporting Lisbon this week.

He said: "Kevin yesterday [Friday] started to feel better, but it’s been one month and a half, and the game was so demanding.

"I tried to take care of him. We need him and he will be back in the right moment."