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Pep Guardiola has been banging the same drum since the start of Manchester City's season, back in June in America at the Club World Cup. Whatever the result, the signs are good, he has insisted.

He delivered a similar message when that tournament ended in a shock defeat to Al-Hilal, and after Premier League defeats to Tottenham, Brighton and Aston Villa.

Guardiola has seen enough in performances to believe his team are back on track, but more than that, it has been the intangibles that have really given him the encouragement that last season's wobbles are well and truly behind them.

He will regularly point to the injury crisis that derailed City last autumn as the primary reason for their season collapsing, but reading between the lines, it isn't difficult to pick up the v

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