Pep Guardiola: 'Everton defeat awful for Manchester City players'

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has admitted that his side's 4-0 defeat at Everton was "awful" for his players, but he wants them to remain positive.

The Spaniard fell to his heaviest ever league defeat as a manager after Romelu Lukaku, Kevin Mirallas, Tom Davies and Ademola Lookman struck for the Toffees in Sunday's Premier League clash in Merseyside.

Guardiola told reporters: "We created enough chances in the first half to score. After what happened we were not able to score and they had one chance and scored. They scored straight after the second half and that is tough mentally for the players.

"The consequence of the game is an example of many that has happened this season. It is football. In football you sometimes don't need to do many things to score. They arrive once and score a goal. It is not today it is almost all the season and it is tough for the players to handle that situation.

"Of course we can do better. It is awful for my players. It is normal to live these kind of situations sometimes. I said to the players be positive because they have made fantastic things in this season but didn't always get what we deserve. I think all managers can say this, though."

Man City stay fifth in the Premier League table after their defeat, 10 points off leaders Chelsea.