Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has taken responsibility for the club’s poor run of form.
City, reigning Premier League champions for the past four seasons and winners in six of the last seven campaigns, currently trail league leaders Liverpool by 14 points.
Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Leicester marked just their second win in 14 games, a stark contrast to their usual dominance.
This slump represents the toughest period in Guardiola’s illustrious managerial career, which includes successful stints at Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
“There are many, many things [involved in being a manager] and I missed something – something I am not doing well,” said Guardiola, who has been at the club for nine seasons.
“In the end, when you lose a lot of games it is an incredible responsibility for the manager to take. There is something the team needs and confidence and I was not able to do it.
“The call is on me first, it’s not the players. They naturally drop a little bit and that is normal. It happened a little bit last season as well.”
City have had slow starts to seasons before – and trailed the leaders by six points or more in each of the past four title-winning campaigns – but they have never been this bad.
“With this consistency [of results] I should have found it, and that is why we’re in this position,” Guardiola said.
“I blame [myself]. It’s not to say, ‘oh how nice is Pep’ – it’s the truth. I lead that group of players and I could not lift them. This is the reality.”
City have suffered many injuries this season – including to Ballon d’Or-winning midfielder Rodri – which Guardiola has repeatedly highlighted.
“We were the only unbeaten team in Europe [until 30 October] and top of the league, but immediately we went down, for injuries, many things we’ve talked about,” he said.
“But, even with that, I should have found a way to get better results.”
The champions host West Ham at 15:00 GMT on Saturday.