Manchester City’s struggling players were required to stay overnight at the club’s training ground ahead of their 12:30 pm Boxing Day clash with Everton.
According to the Daily Mail, Pep Guardiola stated that his players would be taken away from their family homes and expressed hope that they would accept the arrangement positively.
City have suffered nine losses in their last 12 matches, marking the worst run of Guardiola’s managerial career, with their last victory coming on December 4 against Nottingham Forest.
The club first implemented the overnight stay policy in 2014, becoming the Premier League’s first to do so. They use the ‘Etihad Campus’ as a hotel the night before lunchtime home matches. The training facility boasts 80 bedrooms with sleep-enhancing wallpaper, and £150,000 was spent on mattresses and pillows.
“We train today (Tuesday), train tomorrow (Wednesday) night, stay here, and then play on Boxing Day,” said Guardiola.
“Hopefully, they want to be here because this is our job,” Guardiola remarked.
Everton have recently demonstrated their resilience, notably securing a 4-0 victory over Wolves and holding both Arsenal and Chelsea to 0-0 draws.
City are determined to end their troubling run of form, which has seen them drop to seventh in the Premier League, four points behind fourth-placed Nottingham Forest.
Prior to this difficult 12-match stretch, City had lost only nine of their previous 106 games, but they have now matched that number of defeats during this tough period.
Currently, City are at the bottom of the Premier League form table for the last eight matches, with only four points—just one less than Southampton, who recently dismissed Russell Martin and appointed Ivan Juric as their new manager.