Pep Guardiola believes his Manchester City side face a challenge to get back to winning ways at Luton this weekend.

The champions have gone four games without a Premier League win for the first time since 2017 after successive draws against Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham were followed by defeat at Aston Villa on Wednesday.

They will be expected to put that behind them at Kenilworth Road on Sunday but the promoted Hatters have produced some battling performances on their top-flight return and Guardiola expects another.

The City manager said: “They are doing really well for the way they play. Top clubs like Liverpool and Arsenal have struggled to win against them and it will be no different for us.

“But at the same time we’re ready for the challenge. We’ll keep working. That’s what we have to do.

“We’ll go to Luton, adapt for the pitch, the team, the style they play. They’ve done really good things but we will try impose our game and break their dynamic.”

City’s form has raised eyebrows with some observers questioning their hunger or whether they have become complacent after all their recent successes.

Yet none of this is a concern to Guardiola, who has guided City to five Premier League titles as well as Champions League glory.

The Spaniard said: “When you are winning a lot of games you are the best team in the world, when you are not winning it’s a crisis. We know it. It’s always exaggerated one way or another.

“What is important is to face the reality. We’re not used to playing four games without winning but we played against top teams. They’re always difficult.

“It is not the first time we have been in this position. In these eight years we’ve always had periods where we don’t get results.

“We have to try to end them as soon as possible but it happens, so we face it, challenge it. That is the situation, let’s do it, let’s go for it.”

City have Rodri and Jack Grealish available again after suspension and Jeremy Doku will be assessed after missing the Villa game through injury.

Erling Haaland shrugged off injury to score twice as holders Manchester City reached the Champions League last 16 with a comfortable 3-0 win over 10-man Young Boys.

The prolific Norwegian took his tally for the season to 15 with a penalty and a long-range strike as City eased past the Swiss champions at the Etihad Stadium to secure their fourth successive Group G win.

Phil Foden also got on the scoresheet as City, securing their place in the knockout stages for an 11th successive season, overran opponents who failed to muster a single shot and had Sandro Lauper sent off in the second half.

Typically, it was Haaland who stole the show having overcome the ankle problem that forced him off against Bournemouth on Saturday.

Pep Guardiola could have rested his attacking spearhead with Sunday’s trip to Chelsea in mind but resisted and was rewarded with a clinical performance.

Six changes were made with Jeremy Doku, Rodri and Bernardo Silva among those dropped to the bench, but the returning Foden and Jack Grealish brought further firepower.

City, without getting anywhere top gear, were far too strong for the lacklustre visitors and dictated the game at their will.

Young Boys’ only spark came from their lively fans, who after making a colour-coordinated entrance in black or yellow depending on which tier they were seated, let off fireworks in the second half.

City should have taken an early lead after Mateo Kovavic played in Grealish with a superb through-ball and his cut-back presented Rico Lewis with a gilt-edged chance. Lewis attempted to sidefoot the ball home but Loris Benito cleared off the line.

Kovacic then linked well with Haaland, who was tripped on the edge of the area. Kyle Walker drilled the resulting free-kick at Anthony Racioppi and the keeper got up quickly to deny Foden on the rebound.

The inevitable opener came on 23 minutes after Matheus Nunes was tripped just inside the area by Lauper who – having been booked moments earlier – escaped a second yellow card on this occasion.

Haaland made no mistake as he sent Racioppi the wrong way from the spot.

Haaland threatened to grab his second as he homed in on a Walker cross but a slight deflection off a defender wrong-footed him as he shaped to shoot.

City doubled their lead just before the interval as Foden cut inside from a superb Grealish pass and brushed off a challenge from Ulisses Garcia to drill in from a tight angle.

Haaland added the third early in the second half after a storming break from Lewis, lashing home powerfully on the turn after taking a touch just outside the area.

Young Boys’ woes were compounded moments later when Lauper finally received his second booking following a bad challenge on substitute Nathan Ake.

Haaland was withdrawn just after the hour and City professionally saw out the remainder of the game with Kovacic and substitute Kalvin Phillips having further chances.

Rodri will serve a three-match suspension for his sending-off against Nottingham Forest – but how much will Manchester City miss their midfield lynchpin?

Here, the PA news agency looks at the Spaniard’s impact in Pep Guardiola’s side.

“A big miss”

Rodri’s influence has increasingly been recognised over last season and this, peaking with his winning goal and player-of-the-match display in the Champions League final.

Team-mate Phil Foden said after Saturday’s game: “He is one of our most important players and he seems to play all the minutes. He is going to be a big miss.”

While not quite ever-present, Rodri led all City outfielders in playing time last season and had played all but 21 minutes in this season’s Premier League prior to his dismissal for tangling with Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White.

The 27-year-old Spain international leads the Premier League in passes and overall touches of the ball this term, still 67 passes and 87 touches clear of second-placed Brighton defender Lewis Dunk even after his dismissal, and trailed only Dunk in both categories last season.

He is also City’s leader this season and last in tackles and, while the same is true for fouls committed, he had up to now avoided serving a suspension since his arrival at the club in the summer of 2019.

The former Atletico Madrid man had eight Premier League bookings and 11 in all competitions in his first season but has had no more than six in the league or nine overall since then, while Saturday’s was the first red card of his career for club or country.

He ranks third for the club this season in shots and has been outscored by only Erling Haaland in the league and, additionally, Julian Alvarez in all competitions as he seemingly takes on some of the attacking duties left by Ilkay Gundogan’s summer departure.

Call for Kalvin

Gundogan was not the only high-profile player to leave City this summer and, coupled with injuries and now Rodri’s ban, Guardiola’s midfield options are rapidly dwindling.

Kevin De Bruyne lasted 23 minutes of the new league season before aggravating a hamstring injury, with Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic also currently sidelined along with defender John Stones, who excelled in a hybrid role last season.

Summer signing Matheus Nunes and forgotten man Kalvin Phillips could therefore have major roles to play – England international Phillips, who came on in the second half against Forest, has played barely 400 minutes of league football since joining from Leeds last summer.

Foden could also operate in a deeper role but options on the wing are not plentiful either, with Riyad Mahrez and Cole Palmer leaving this summer while Jack Grealish has only just returned from a knee problem. Jeremy Doku has hit the ground running while Alvarez has been used more regularly as a foil for Haaland up front.

Pep Guardiola admitted he was angry with Rodri after the influential midfielder was sent off in Manchester City’s 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest.

The Spain international was dismissed early in the second half of Saturday’s Premier League clash at the Etihad Stadium after raising his hands to the neck of Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White.

Rodri protested at the time, and there was a delay before referee Anthony Taylor’s decision was upheld by VAR, but Guardiola claimed there could be no excuses for his conduct.

The City manager said: “Hopefully Rodri will learn. The game was perfect with 35 minutes gone and after it became chaos.

“That’s not our responsibility, that’s for sure, but Rodri has to control himself and his emotions. I can get a yellow card but Rodri can’t. I don’t play. The guys inside (the pitch) have to be careful.

“I said at half-time, ‘Be careful guys, relax, control your emotions’. Unfortunately, Rodri could not do it. Now we have to accept the decisions.”

Asked if he was angry with Rodri, Guardiola said: “Yes. I don’t like to play with 10 for our faults. He has apologised.”

Despite being critical of Rodri, Guardiola was not happy with the way the game was controlled by Taylor.

As well as Rodri’s red card, there were 11 bookings during the game, including one for Guardiola himself.

Guardiola said: “The referee changed the game.

“For the first 35 minutes, it was absolutely not (a bad game). What changed? What happened after 2-0, it’s not down to us. You have to ask the other ones but I don’t know if they will hang up the phone.”

City had put themselves into a comfortable lead with goals inside the first 14 minutes from Phil Foden and Erling Haaland.

After Rodri’s departure, the hosts needed to change approach and Guardiola was pleased with the outcome.

He said: “Our game in the first 35 minutes was beyond good, how we find our men free, it was really, really good.

“It was a lot of minutes we had to defend, and we conceded one chance in the 94th minute. We didn’t concede anything else, against a team who won at Stamford Bridge and created problems at Arsenal and Old Trafford.

“I’m really satisfied and pleased for all of us.”

Forest manager Steve Cooper had conflicting thoughts about his side’s performance.

He said: “We had a really poor start in terms of goals conceded. We knew the level of the challenge we faced here – it doesn’t get any tougher – and the two City goals were of great quality, typical City goals.

“But we’d planned for that. It was a repeat tactic and to let it happen as easily as they did – if they were going to score I wanted it to be with real difficulty.

“The game changes with the red card. That we had a second half played in City’s half I have mixed feelings about.

“You rarely get an opportunity to have that territory here. Even more experienced teams don’t get anywhere near that but we need to make more of these opportunities. We have got to be more productive.”

Manchester City’s match-winner Rodri has been named Champions League player of the year by UEFA as seven City players made the team of the season and Erling Haaland took goal of the season honours.

Rodri’s 68th-minute strike made the difference as City beat Inter Milan 1-0 in Istanbul to lift the European Cup and complete a remarkable treble.

And on Sunday the 26-year-old was named player of the season by UEFA’s technical observer panel.

Rodri played in all but one of City’s Champions League matches this season, with Saturday’s match-winner his second goal in the tournament this campaign.

The Spain midfielder was joined by six club mates in the team of the season as Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones, Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva and Kyle Walker were all included.

Inter’s Federico Dimarco and Alessandro Bastoni were also selected along with Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and forward Vinicius Junior.

City also scooped the goal of the season award through Haaland for his acrobatic strike against former club Borussia Dortmund during the group stages, when he twisted to turn Joao Cancelo’s curling pass into the net during City’s 2-1 win.

Manchester City have learned from past failures in Europe as they prepare to face Inter Milan in the Champions League final, according to Rodri.

City were beaten to the trophy in 2021 by Chelsea after a 1-0 defeat in Porto before throwing away a late lead to crash out against Real Madrid in the semi-final a year ago.

It leaves Europe’s top competition as the only major honour the club has yet to land, but they go into next Saturday’s meeting with the Serie A side in Istanbul as firm favourites to complete an historic treble.

The second leg of that feat was achieved with a 2-1 victory against Manchester United in the FA Cup final at Wembley on Saturday, with a goal in either half from Ilkay Gundogan sealing the win and adding the cup to the Premier League title they won in May.

With Europe’s biggest prize having continued to elude them, Rodri pointed to last month’s sensational win against Real in the last four as confirmation that the team can right the wrongs of previous seasons.

“As I tell you before, we try to learn a lot from the past,” he said.

“It’s something you learn and I think the desire…how we played Real Madrid, for example, before a defeat there last year, so we’re going to play in the same way, trying to solve the situation, come back from the situation and try to win the final.”

The 4-0 victory at the Etihad against the reigning European champions that sent them to Istanbul saw City at their dazzling best, Bernardo Silva scoring twice together with goals from Manuel Akanji and Julian Alvarez to complete a 5-1 aggregate win.

It was in stark contrast to the feeling surrounding the club as they were eliminated by the same opponent at the same stage the previous campaign, letting a two-goal aggregate lead slip in the final minutes at the Bernabeu before losing in extra-time.

“I think that the experience is a very good point,” said Rodri. “Also the players that came in make a massive impact to give us extra every year. I think that the squad in general, you learn as a group. We try to innovate and push ourselves to the minute every time.

“I think Pep said that you will not be ‘big, big’ if you don’t win in Europe. It’s the exam we have to pass again. Another final and we are ready, that’s all I can say. I’m just going to push the guys to be ourselves. Be confident, be ourselves and try our best and fight for the final.

“We have a squad of 23 players and all of them have been important at some part of the season. The team wins trophies and the 23 were part of this from the first round until the end in the Premier League, the same in the Champions League to have into the final. The team is so important.”