Pep Guardiola insists his passion for City remains as strong as ever, with his decision to sign a contract extension down to his work at the Club not being finished.

The Catalan committed his future to the Blues for a further two years last week, which will see his spectacular reign in the dugout surpass the ten-year mark.

City are currently experiencing the toughest run of form during Guardiola’s tenure ahead of Sunday’s table-topping clash with Premier League leaders Liverpool.

But the boss says his motivation to get the Blues back to our usual high standards has never declined, otherwise he would not have agreed to stay.

He explained: “I still have passion and stand up in the morning and say ‘okay I’m going to prepare training, the game plan against Liverpool, how they defend, the way they attack what we have to do’, we have two days for that.

“I would say more and more the situation when you get comfortable, okay you can relax a little bit in those moments, maybe it’s not good, maybe you should relax a little bit but no, I wouldn’t be here to extend the contract, I am honest with that.

“I was in Barcelona, today was the 125th anniversary of my club where I was born. I was there for four years, 14 titles, I had Messi the best player ever, Neymar was coming and I said ‘I’m leaving’.

“People asked why, your hometown with this generation of players, Xavi, [Andres] Iniesta, [Carlos] Puyol, all the players who changed the world, World Cup, European Cups, how they played the finals, those guys and I left. I felt it.

“Here’s the same, I extend because I feel it, I’m not sitting here just for what I’ve done, it’s because still I’m happy and I want to try.

“But the moment it’s going to happen, I don’t want to stay in a place where I feel I’m a problem, I don’t stay just because a contract is there.

“My Chairman knows it, I said to him give me the chance to try and come back and especially when everyone comes back let’s see what happens.

“After if it’s not good we have to change. I never ask my hierarchy to stay, but more than ever I ask them to give me the chance.

“I have the feeling that I still have a job to do, and I want to do it.”

Second-placed City travel to Premier League leaders Liverpool on Sunday 1 December looking to overcome a difficult run of results.

A win would also deal a blow to one of our title rivals, with Arne Slot’s side having lost just once all season, to Nottingham Forest back in September.

The Blues’ last win at Anfield came in February 2021, with the previous victory before that triumph coming in 2003.

Guardiola admits that Liverpool will go into the tie full of confidence but, when it comes to the big games, being seen as the favourite has never played into his thinking or given his team an edge.

“Well, we have only won there once in the COVID time when there were no people there,” he added.

“Nothing changed my job, of course we are not [favourites], now we don’t improve in the recent games, especially for the other one but that is not the point.

“When I played in Barcelona with these extraordinary players and we were favourites, I never thought about it giving an extra boost or ‘I’m going to start the game from 1-0’ or we play bad.

“We have to perform, read what you have to do and we will see what will happen.”