Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says he "won't give up" as he aims to improve the champions' form. City, who have won six of the last seven Premier League titles, have won just one of their last 13 league games, losing nine of them.
It has put Guardiola under immense pressure, but he has vowed not to quit or blame his players. "I'll try, I'll keep going," he said ahead of City's trip to Leicester on Sunday afternoon.
"Of course I want this (the negative streak) to end, everyone wants it. I don't want to disappoint my people, whether it's the club, the fans, or the people who love this club. I think that everyone in our job wants to do well and please people. That's indisputable, it's not a question mark. The biggest test is to come back again, but we've done that before," he said.
Guardiola said injuries are the main reason for City's poor form, as several key players have been absent from recent matches, including the 1-1 draw at home to Everton on Thursday.
Ballon d'Or-winning midfielder Rodri will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury, while Ruben Dias, John Stones, Ederson, Kyle Walker, Jack Grealish and Matheus Nunes also missed the match against Everton.
"Sometimes you have injuries," Guardiola said. "For years we were very consistent, but now, yes, we are a bit down and the main reason is that we have so many important players injured. But I saw the spirit of the team, how they trained this week, how focused they are, how they tried in practice. We saw that against Everton too, but unfortunately we didn't get the result we wanted."