Pep Guardiola has insisted he will not give up trying to turn Manchester City's fortunes around, despite overseeing a wretched run of just one win in 13 games.

The Blues head to Leicester City on Sunday in dire need of a win against a side in the bottom three, with problems mounting for Guardiola as injuries continue to bite. He was without eight first-team players for the Boxing Day draw with Everton that extended the worst run of the Catalan's career.

City's remarkable slump has seen Guardiola backed into fourth favourite to be the next Premier League manager to leave their job and the 53-year-old has said on several occasions that he will walk away from the club if he believes he can't turn things around, despite signing a two-year contract extension in November.

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But Guardiola was pleased with the improvement his team showed against Everton, despite throwing away a lead and struggling to create much after Erling Haaland missed a penalty, and he has no intention of admitting defeat just yet.

"I will keep going," he said. "Sometimes you think [it] will be earlier or easier to fix it, and others it takes more time. I will not give up. I want to be here, I want to do it and with the situation we have now I HAVE to do it.

"And now we go to Leicester, a place it has always been difficult to get good results, and with players we have available that is what I will try."

Guardiola will take charge of his 500th City game at the King Power Stadium, and his 950th in his club career, but he has never had to deal with the kind of run he is currently going through.

But having enjoyed the riches of his profession, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager is now ready to dig in and show he can deal with the hard time as well, with his connection with the City supporters another motivator to deliver good times to the Etihad once again.

"Of course I want it, everyone wants it. I don’t want to disappoint my people in terms of the club, the fans, the people who love this place," he said.

"It’s not just now, it’s since I arrived as a player and then a manager. I think all of us in our job want to do it well and please the people. That is undeniable or no question mark. It’s easy to understand.

"The biggest test is to come back again – that has already happened, we have done that before. That makes you remember how good the past was, that’s the truth. This makes you realise how good it is what we have done in the past.

"Sometimes you have injuries. For how many years we were incredibly consistent but now, yes, expect a little bit down and the main reason is having so many important players injured. I saw the team spirit, how we trained [before Everton], how focused they are, how they try to practice."

Haaland's missed penalty was a bitter blow on Boxing Day, with Jordan Pickford denying the Norwegian and stopping City from retaking the lead.

But Guardiola hasn't spoken with his striker and insists he isn't going to start calling his players out at this stage of his career.

"I don’t have it in my education to start complaining, to point at people," he said. "It’s happened, it’s life, it’s football so let’s try it again.

"That’s why all the time we have had success, because always it is never enough. We will try it again and again and again. That’s why we won a lot of titles. Every three days it was a game and win, win, win for many, many years. Now we have to do the same and results are not good."