City needed Leicester victory for their souls - Guardiola

Boss Pep Guardiola admitted Manchester City needed to beat Leicester for their "minds and souls".

Savinho and Erling Haaland scored to give the defending champions a 2-0 victory and just their second win in their last 10 Premier League matches.

City have suffered damaging defeats to leaders Liverpool, Tottenham, Bournemouth, Brighton, Aston Villa and in the Manchester derby during their abject run.

The win at the King Power Stadium lifted them to fifth, four points behind Chelsea having played a game more as Guardiola marked 500 games in charge with victory.

"Today we won, we needed it to clear our minds and souls and see 'ok, we can win games'," he said. "I think it's [relief] the right word to use, more than happiness, it's the relief.

"I never thought it would be difficult to win one single game. Maybe it's good, you have to win a game to come back to what you are going to do.

"People say it's impossible to get worse but it can get worse, don't tell me why but it can get worse.

"All the clubs and managers live this kind of situation. Maybe it wasn't expected but the most important is the relief and hopefully we can go to the games with another face."

Savinho scored his first City goal since signing from French side Troyes for £30.8m in the summer in the first half before setting up Haaland - who missed a penalty in the 1-1 draw against Everton on Boxing Day - for a crucial second with 16 minutes left.

Jamie Vardy and Facundo Buonanotte hit the woodwork, with Vardy also firing over in the second half, for the Foxes, who remain in the relegation zone, but the visitors held on.

Guardiola added: "The experience is what I always thought could happen. People said at the start of the season 'City are going to win' but I never took that comment seriously.

"There are a lot of factors, some of them everyone knows like injuries. Sometimes a manager has to deal with the tactics, relations, the media and there are feelings I should have reacted differently than I did [some] time ago.

"But it's incredible learning and it's just one game. We will see what happens on 4 January with West Ham."