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Pep Guardiola has insisted he will “not give up” in his attempts to oversee a turnaround in Manchester City‘s fortunes after their draw with Everton left the club with one win from their last 13 games in all competitions.

City’s 1-1 home draw with Everton on Boxing Day left them down in seventh place, five points off the top four and 14 adrift of leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand.

Guardiola said this week that City were at risk of missing out on Champions League qualification this season in what would be a shocking turn of events for the reigning champions.

The 53-year-old, who signed a two-year contract extension last month, said frustration over poor results has not affected his desire to steer City back to their previous top form.

“I will not give up. I want to do it. And with the situations that we have, we have to do it,” Guardiola said after Thursday’s match.

“Of course I want it. Everybody wants it. I don’t want to disappoint my people, in terms of the club, in terms of the fans, or the people who love this club.”

Guardiola said his team’s shocking run of results, the worst stretch in his mostly glittering managerial career, has helped him realise how good they were on their run of winning an unprecedented four consecutive Premier League titles.

“That makes me remember how good was the past,” he said. “That’s the truth, that has made me realise now what we have done, because sometimes you have injuries, and how many years we were incredibly, incredibly consistent.

“But, yeah, you expect a little bit down. We didn’t expect [this] much, and the main reason is having seven, eight important injured players.

“But I see the team, the spirit in training, how focused they are. And we saw [progress in Saturday’s] game, we saw it, but unfortunately we could not get the result that we wanted.”

Guardiola shook his head when asked whether his team’s slump had made him even more determined to please people.

“It has been since the arrival of my career as a football player, as a manager, I think every one of us in our job wants to please the people, we want to do good our jobs. That is undeniable. That is not a question mark, I would say.”

If City are to right the ship, the next few weeks could be the best time to do it. Sunday’s match at Leicester City is the first of four successive league games against teams in the bottom half of the table.

Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice has heaped praise on his “very special” teammate Myles Lewis-Skelly, insisting the youngster can go the very top.

Lewis-Skelly, a midfielder as an Arsenal youth prospect, has broken into the first team as a left-back this season and has started the last three Premier League games, with an impressed Mikel Arteta favouring him over more experienced options.

England international Rice said it was “ridiculous” how good the 18-year-old already is.

“He can go to the top, this kid is just special, very special,” Rice told the Arsenal website. “For an 18-year-old to be that good, that comfortable, that strong — it was like he was built in a lab!

“I said that to him the other day, it’s just ridiculous how good he is, but he has a long way to go. He’s so level-headed, he’s got a great family around him, I know his mum looks after him really well and all the boys at the training ground do too.

“We have a really good crop of youngsters coming through and he can be what he wants to be, he just needs to stay focused and always want more and he can do that.”

Lewis-Skelly is one of two teenage Hale End products to have been given regular minutes by Arteta this season, with Ethan Nwaneri also catching the eye in midfield.

After Friday’s 1-0 victory against Ipswich that lifted Arsenal to second in the Premier League, Arteta said of Lewis-Skelly: “He is a special character. He is well ahead of his age and then he has qualities where he adapts to the way that we are playing. Credit to him.”

Cristiano Ronaldo has insisted that Manchester United‘s problems are not down to new manager Ruben Amorim, and believes he would be able to fix them if he was the club’s owner.

Amorim has lost five of his 10 games in charge of United — including four of the past five in the Premier League — and said ahead of the next game against Newcastle United that his job is not safe.

But Ronaldo, who scored 145 goals over two spells at United but has been critical of the club’s ownership, among other things in recent years, has said his countryman is not to blame.

“The Premier League it’s the most difficult league in the world,” Ronaldo, now playing for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia, said at the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Friday.

“All the teams are good, all the teams fight, all the teams run, all the players are strong. Football is different right now. There’s no easy games anymore.

“I said this one and a half years ago, and I will continue to say it: The problem is not the coaches.

“It’s like an aquarium. If you have the fish inside and he’s sick and you take him out and you fix the problem and you put him again in an aquarium they will be sick again.

“The problem of Manchester United is the same. The problem is not always the coach. It’s much more than that.

“If I will be the owner of the club, I will make things clear and adjust what I think is bad there.”

Ronaldo’s comments followed him hinting at ownership of a “big club” in the near future.

“I’m not a coach. I’m never going to be a coach, president of the club? No. Maybe owner of the club,” he said.

“It will depend on the moment, the right opportunities.”

Asked if he had any in mind, Ronaldo cryptically responded: “Not yet. A few, maybe.”

But questioned about contact with the Glazers directly, Ronaldo said: “I’m still very young, I have so many plans and dreams ahead.

“But mark my words, I will be owner of a big club. For sure.”

Ronaldo left United in 2022 following a public fallout with Erik ten Hag and a TV interview where Ronaldo made a number of explosive claims, including that the owners — the Glazer family — “don’t care about the club.”

Since Ronaldo’s exit, Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group have assumed control of football operations, while Ten Hag was sacked before the hiring of Amorim. But Ronaldo still feels problems persist.

Asked about Amorim, the Portugal forward was complimentary as he said: “He did a fantastic job in Portugal with my club Sporting. But the Premier League is a different beast, it’s a different league, it’s the most competitive league in the world.

“I knew it would be tough and they would continue the storm, but the storm will finish and the sun will rise. Fingers crossed things will be good with him and I hope the best for Manchester United because this is a club I still love.”

At the awards, Ronaldo was named Best Middle East Player of 2024 after a strong year in Saudi Arabia.

Cristiano Ronaldo has said he believes Real Madrid forward Vinícius Júnior was unfairly snubbed for this year’s men’s Ballon d’Or award.

Speaking at the Globe Soccer Awards on Friday, Ronaldo said Vinícius deserved the prize over Manchester City‘s Rodri. Vinícius and his Madrid teammates boycotted the ceremony in Paris hosted by France Football magazine.

“In my opinion, he [Vinícius] deserved to win the golden ball [Ballon d’Or award],” Ronaldo said. “It was unfair in my opinion. I say here in front of everybody. They give it to Rodri, he deserved it too, but they should have given it to Vinícius because he won the Champions League and scored in the final.”

Vinícius was later awarded FIFA’s The Best men’s player award earlier this month and won Globe Soccer’s best men’s prize on Friday, while Barcelona star Aitana Bonmati won the women’s player of the year award, her latest such honour.

Ronaldo, who has won five Ballon d’Ors but was not shortlisted for this year’s prize, criticised France Football magazine.

“You know these galas, they always do the same thing,” he said.

Ronaldo then praised Globe Soccer, who named him Best Middle East Player of 2024 on Friday.

The Portugal international has scored 74 goals in 83 games since joining on a free transfer in January 2023 after leaving Manchester United.

Ronaldo took aim at his old club, saying the club is still struggling from issues stemming from more deep-rooted issues.

“The problem of Manchester United is the same,” he said. “The problem is not always the coach. It’s much more than that.

“If you have the fish inside and he’s sick and you take him out and you fix the problem and you put him again in an aquarium you will be sick again.”

Atlético Madrid chief executive Miguel Ángel Gil Marin has criticised the latest developments in the Super League project, blaming it for “creating uncertainty” and saying the proposals are “just about vindication for one club.”

Super League promotors A22 relaunched the Super League earlier in December as the “Unify League” and asked football’s governing bodies, UEFA and FIFA to formally recognise their right to organise a new competition.

Atlético Madrid were one of the original Super League’s 12 founding member clubs, but soon became the first Spanish club to withdraw from the project, leaving Real Madrid — the scheme’s principal backers — and Barcelona as the only LaLiga representatives.

“At one time [the Super League] was a project based on a closed league, which would protect a few, and put the European football pyramid in danger,” Gil Marin said in an interview with Atlético’s in-house media on Friday.

“Now it’s just about vindication for one club, in its stubborn fight against the system. I honestly believe the best way to change things that you don’t agree with is doing so from within. From the outside, however big the club is, the only thing you achieve is creating uncertainty for television channels and sponsors, and with that, slow down the growth of the competitions in their current formats.

“UEFA and the European Club Association, which represent the system, have adapted their competitions with the aim of allowing clubs from more countries to participate, thanks to the three European competitions: the Champions League, the Europa League and the Conference League. And at the same time, they’ve ensured that the big clubs make more money.”

By contrast, Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez attacked UEFA’s reforms in his speech to the club’s AGM of members in November, and reiterated his support for the Super League.

On Friday, Atlético’s Gil Marin also called for limits on the number of games top players can be involved in, to protect their health.

“This is a season that’s especially crowded for some clubs,” Gil Marin said. “In my opinion, the solution should be limiting the number of games that each player can play during a season, for their club and their national team. It’s our obligation to protect the players.”

Atlético go into 2025 top of the LaLiga table — after a dramatic 2-1 win at title rivals Barcelona on Dec. 21 — having invested heavily in new signings Julián Álvarez, Alexander Sørloth, Conor Gallagher and Robin Le Normand last summer.

“We knew we had to make changes in the squad, and sign various important players in key positions,” Gil Marin said. “And that meant a significant investment, because it involved top, international players… I’m convinced we took the right approach, and after a period of adaptation, we’re seeing the contribution of those signings in the performance of the team.”