Manchester City are the 'worst team in the Premier League' when they lose the ball, and opposition sides no longer fear the Blues according to a brutal Pep Guardiola verdict on his struggling side.

Guardiola believes his team will not be back to their best until next season and admitted to having serious doubts over City's ability to qualify for next season's Champions League through a top four (or top five) finish. The manager also did not rule out more incoming transfers this month after spending more than £100m already on three players.

This was an audience with Guardiola that wasn't about the questions he was asked. It was about the answers he wanted to give instead.

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A question about Adukodir Khusanov's pace turned into a lengthy, passionate monologue about City's fear factor evaporating this season, and how they have stopped doing the things on and off the ball that he admits changed Premier League football. And when he was asked about City's approach to the January transfer market, another monologue followed about City's Champions League qualification hopes and their legacy.

Sometimes, getting Guardiola's true feelings can be like getting blood from a stone. But he poured his heart out before Saturday's clash with Chelsea.

City face Enzo Maresca's side in the first of a brutal run of fixtures that will truly test if they have come through their nightmare run before Christmas. They also face Club Brugge (in a must-win Champions League clash), Arsenal, Newcastle, Liverpool, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest and Brighton in their next nine games - as well as two potential Champions League play-off games.

Guardiola has battled to downplay the notion that City were 'back' over their recent seven-game unbeaten run, and used his Chelsea preview to hammer home some brutal realities to his squad about their drop in standards, chances of making the top four, and how opposition sides no longer fear coming to the Etihad.

"When you said, ‘Ipswich Town, is back’ or ‘against Leicester, is back’, it takes time, still," he said, almost pleased his point had been proven. "Next season we will be back, really, now it is a question to survive, to qualify, to fight for the title if it is possible, otherwise to accept the reality is completely different from the last eight or nine years."

It is not too long ago since City were defending a two-year unbeaten record at home, but now they have won just three of their last seven at the Etihad since that run was broken by Tottenham. And in a stark admission, Guardiola admitted his side are the worst in the Premier League for physicality and regaining the ball - something they used to be world-leaders in.

"Our problem is with the ball. What defines our team is what we do with the ball. We’re not an incredible team in defence. Always we’ve done it with the ball," he began.

"We have to pass the ball more. We want to run too quick, make the actions without pause, without our composure. If you have the ball and don’t pass properly to your mate and then another one, everything is so difficult. You lose balls that normally didn’t happen in the past and you have to run more, more duels and we’re not great at that.

"Any team in the 20 in the Premier League are better than us [at that]. They are better. We run more than ever in this nine years compared to the opponents but people are confused, it’s about what you do with the ball."

Guardiola continued: "When I arrived here, all the goalkeepers were long ball. Now all the keepers are central defenders, play the defenders wide, make the process, everyone in the pockets. You struggle more to regain the ball.

"Nine years ago you [blew] and now you have to sweat. To define our team is the ball. Now we are struggling in that terms otherwise we won’t qualify for the Champions League.

"Before, never a team made man-marking. I remember everyone came here to the Etihad and stayed back. The first team I saw man-marking was Neil Warnock at Cardiff. And after, Gaspirini with Atalanta. Now everyone does it, it doesn’t matter [to them]. Everyone comes here, it doesn’t matter, man to man. They just jump to Ederson or Stefan [Ortega]. You have to adapt, do it better with the ball, otherwise you are not qualifying for the Champions League."

"Maybe we have to change something to make them [the players] more comfortable – the shape or something. There is something I’m missing and I have to discover it quick. The players run a lot but the other teams play better. They have more physicality and intensity but all the teams are better at that than us, for the age, for many things. The toughest and quickest players we had decided to leave the club."