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The Blues boss admitted that his players were not happy to follow their ridiculous defeat at Newcastle, which cost them an untimely defeat.
Pep Guardiola insists that Manchester City's motivation to defend its Premier League title should not be questioned.
City suffered a 2-1 defeat to Newcastle United on Tuesday, though Sergio Aguero gave them the advantage at St James's Park after 24 seconds.
The impact of a fourth defeat in nine league games was toned down 24 hours later by leaders Liverpool, opposed 1 to 1, home to Leicester City. The space at the top was five points ahead of the host City, Arsenal on Sunday. .
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Jurgen Klopp's men are driven by history – the 18-time champions of England, who run after a first crown for 29 years – but Guardiola has no doubt about his club's desire to win a fourth title in eight seasons.
"On what [Liverpool] I can not answer because I'm not here, "he said at a pre-game press conference. I can answer for my team and of course, we are not happy with the last performance. We knew immediately at half-time and after the match.
"But if we did not have the motivation, we would not be here, where we are – in all the competitions, in another final in the [Carabao] Cup, be in the Champions League, finish first [in the group] and [qualifying for] the last 16 and in the league being there.
"It could not be possible, it's a process that's often repeated when people say you're the perfect team and you're unbeatable, that sort of thing is a long time ago, but my answer was the same. .
"Every game is a challenge to see what you can do best and sometimes there are ups and downs during the season for the players, they can not maintain 11 months at the highest level and the opponents want to beat us.
"This week, the top six have struggled to win their games, but these are the challenges and we want to face them."
Guardiola rejected the suggestion that a hastily deleted publication of City right-backer Kyle Walker's Twitter account, seemingly making fun of Liverpool by scoring points in a freefall against Leicester, could drastically increase their title.
"I'm not concerned about social media, or about what players tweet or put on Instagram, I can not control it," he said.
"I do not think the motivation to win games, from ourselves and from our opponents, has increased from one tweet or another.
"Motivation is our game. That's what we need to do." Regardless of whether we are five, six, seven, eight points behind, we simply need to improve our game.
"We have already done it and I know we can do it, but nothing changes, we would do one or two points [behind] or six or seven, but we have to focus on our game. "
The immediate ambition is to narrow the two-point gap and exert pressure before moving Liverpool to West Ham on Monday.
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But Guardiola conceded that such issues would be irrelevant if City again relied on standards set by Tyneside.
Asked if Liverpool's draw was a boost, he added: "It's much better, but I would say right away:" How is our level? ".
"If our level is the last game, it does not matter whether it's two or five [points]we will not win. "
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