When Pep Guardiola was laying down the reality of Jack Grealish's Manchester City situation, he made a telling revelation that mostly went under the radar.

He was answering a question about the Etihad crowd. Kevin De Bruyne had made a silly comment about nerves in the stands and Guardiola was then asked about it. He insisted the fans are always right, and turned attention to his City players.

"We will do it. We will be back again," Guardiola said of his players and their efforts to fight to put things right after the recent losing run. "I want to fight and try to deliver to make you proud. If you help us it will be easier. If they help us, the distance to come back will be shorter. [The players] are human beings. I know the players want to do it. I know them perfectly. Almost all of them want to do it."

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And that was that, he moved on, telling his players to accept their reality but also be realistic that their performance against West Ham was 'not the best'. He was trying to make the point that a win is welcome, yet nobody should be relaxed that City are out of the woods because they are still far from their best.

So why do 'almost all' of the players want to fight to get out of the mess?

Guardiola would go on to tell Grealish to improve his productivity in terms of goals and assists like Savinho has recently. The same message will have been heard by any number of underperforming or out-of-form players who know the best way to get back into the team is to be consistent.

Maybe the more concerning message is that Guardiola feels not everyone in his squad is pulling in the same direction. He has dropped or sold players who have put themselves above the team in recent seasons, so whoever he is referring to will know they are on alert this month or in the summer.

The comment was put to Guardiola on Friday but he simply said he couldn't remember the answer he gave. That is fair, although it wouldn't have been in his interests to fan the flames further. But it will have been heard loud and clear by whoever it was aimed at - he didn't need to add anymore and spark a witchhunt.

Now it's up to any player Guardiola's words apply to, to in the coming weeks to prove the manager wrong. They have been put on notice.