Pep Guardiola does not expect anyone to roll out the red carpet for Manchester City as they aim to wrestle back the Premier League title.

City endured a disappointing 2024-25 campaign, from which their only piece of silverware was the Community Shield.

It marked the first time since Guardiola's first season in charge (2016-17) that City had not won a major trophy, as they finished third in the Premier League.

City were a distant 23 points behind runaway champions Liverpool, and though Guardiola has seen his squad bolstered by the signings of Rayan Ait-Nouri, Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders and James Trafford, he does not expect a turnaround to be easy.

"The positivity is there. I’m pretty sure it’ll be good, but it won’t be a red carpet season, there’ll always be problems, it’s how you overcome those situations," he said, as quoted by City's official website.

"I would say this club grew up in the last 15, 20 years and are at the top of every competition we play. Let’s continue to do it."

City also have the outcome of their case against 115 Premier League charges for alleged financial breaches to contend with, while their likely title rivals – Liverpool and Arsenal – have also strengthened.

According to Opta's supercomputer, City have an 18.8% chance of regaining the title, with Liverpool made the favourites to finish first (28.5%).

When asked what a successful season would look like, Guardiola said: "I don’t know. It depends [on] how we played and how we performed.

"At the end when the people give good spirit and fight and run and give their best, and after the opponents are always involved, sometimes you can do your best and the opponents are just better.

"It depends on ourselves, this is what we have to try to do. We challenge against ourselves, this is the target for the season."

John Stones, meanwhile, warned City's rivals that they are determined to right the wrongs of last season.

"It was humbling for us, after all the success we’ve had," he said.

"It makes us realise what we’ve done, what we’ve achieved over the years and how proud we should be, but we’re obviously frustrated at what we did last season. It’s not what we want to replicate.

"To finish third, three or four points behind Arsenal is – by our standards – not good. We’ve got to put that right and get back to our identity, get back to winning matches and having that presence about us and believing in ourselves as a team.

"I’m sure we’ll find that and bring it back because it was tough last season to go through what we did. We’ve definitely come back with that fire in our bellies to go and achieve."

City, who were in Club World Cup action earlier this summer, face Palermo in a pre-season friendly on Saturday, before they take on Wolves in their opening Premier League fixture a week later.