MAN CITY: Villa backs Guardiola to turn around City fortunes

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

Former Barcelona and Spain striker David Villa has backed Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola to overcome teething troubles and turn around the fortunes of the Premier League club.

Having enjoyed great success with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, Guardiola was brought in by City to take the club into the European elite but so far the Spaniard is struggling to compete on the domestic front.

City were hammered 4-0 by Everton on Sunday and have slipped to fifth in the Premier League, 10 points adrift of leaders Chelsea.

Villa, who now plays in Major League Soccer with New York City FC, kept faith with the manager under whom he won the Spanish league twice and the 2011 Champions League with Barca. “He has a difficult period right now but I believe he will change the situation,” Villa told Reuters television in an interview.