Pep Guardiola believes he has become a better manager since joining Manchester City, despite ending his first season at the club without a trophy.

City went out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage to Monaco and lost in the semi-final of the FA Cup to Arsenal, while they are fourth in the Premier League, 14 points behind leaders Chelsea.

Guardiola's side face a derby clash with Manchester United on Thursday that will be crucial for their top-four hopes, and the City boss, irrespective of his impressive CV, claimed he is still learning.

"I am not a worse manager because I didn't win the title," the City boss told Sky Sports. "I feel as though I'm a better manager than before because I learned a lot and am more experienced. I've learned to handle situations better than before.

"Normally when something happens for the first time you know why it is the first time, so for it to happen after nine years is amazing. That is what I learned from that - I tried but I was not able.

"In Spain there are fantastic teams that are not going to win anything this year but that is going to happen across Europe. I am expecting to have a long career as a manager and it will happen again one year."

Guardiola noted City are not yet at the level of Europe's giants, with the club having won two Premier League titles since the takeover by billionaire owner Sheikh Mansour.

"I am not at a club who have won a lot of titles like Barcelona, Bayern, Madrid, Inter, Juventus or AC Milan," Guardiola added.

"So that's why you have to discover something new and you have to be better and better to win that amount of titles like United, Chelsea and Liverpool - clubs with more history than Manchester City.

"That is why I decided to come here, it's been a big lesson for me. That's why I think about what we have not done well and take the right decision to make be better next season."

Guardiola is seeking to become the fourth manager to win both home and away Manchester derbies in his debut top-flight season and the Catalan insisted the competitiveness at the top of the Premier League has not surprised him.

"From my point of the view, the pitch is the same size so the football [in England, Spain and Germany] is quite similar," former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach Guardiola said.

"The better teams and players win and, in the case of this season, Chelsea and Tottenham were better - the same thing happened at Barcelona and Bayern Munich. They were the better managers, better players and they beat us. We tried and I do not regret what we did.

"Another team was better than us in that moment and I congratulated them, they deserved it and [we] aim to improve the next season. I leave this season with a good lesson to improve next season. I did not come here expecting it would be easy, or expecting to win everything."