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Pep Guardiola 'taught a lesson' in first year at Manchester City

Pep Guardiola is predicting bigger things for Manchester City after admitting his first year in England has taught him "a lesson".

Wednesday night's defeat at Chelsea prompted Guardiola to write off Manchester City's already-slim title chances, and the battle now is to hang on to a Champions league qualifying place.

City also have an FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal to come later this month, but the season has been a disappointment by the standards of a manager who won a treble in his first season at Barcelona and a double in his first year at Bayern Munich.

And Guardiola gave a frank assessment on the eve of Saturday's game against Hull, saying: "I will be better, definitely. This season was a lesson for me.

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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has denied reports there was a bust-up in the tunnel after their Premier League defeat at Chelsea

"It's normal when you have seven, eight or nine years as a manager to have a season where you don't have as much success as before. It can happen. You learn about that.

"I never could imagine in Barcelona, Bayern or when I arrived here I would know absolutely everything. I tried to adapt as much as possible. I did it and I think we will be better.

"I feel like we're better now so it is a more interesting year for me as a manager to grow and handle this kind of situation. I didn't complain, I didn't give up."

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Chelsea 2-1 Manchester City

"We were good but not good enough. We have to be honest with ourselves. We were not good enough to compete for the Premier League.

"[But] We have a lot of beautiful things left to fight for this season. The Champions League is so important, qualifying will be a huge success from my point of view, and of course we have the FA Cup. We still have a lot of things to do."

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