Pep Guardiola was relieved to see the hunger back in his Manchester City team as they won 4-0 at Watford in the Premier League.

Losing on Saturday to Arsenal in their FA Cup semi-final came as a major blow to City, with Guardiola unhappy with the performance, particularly the first-half showing at Wembley.

After that game, Guardiola said it was ‘the way we lost’ that hurt him more than the result, questioning the appetite among his players for the battle.

He was more satisfied with the display at Watford, though, as two goals from Raheem Sterling were followed by Phil Foden and Aymeric Laporte getting on the scoresheet.

Guardiola told BBC Radio Five Live: ‘The minimum, we did it today.’

The City manager explained what he demands of his players, saying: ‘We can win and we can lose. In your career as a football player, you lose more games than you win, but also always you have to finish a game and go into a locker room and say, “I did everything to win the game. I’m exhausted and I did everything to win the game.”

‘And when this doesn’t happen, we cannot be proud of ourselves.’

Guardiola stressed even Sterling, after another outstanding season individually, would not be finishing the league campaign with a great sense of accomplishment.

‘He’s quality. The personal achievements have always related to how we have done in the Premier League and we’ve finished second, far away from the champions,’ Guardiola said. ‘So that’s why not even Raheem must be happy with the season we have done in the Premier League.’

Guardiola also said the Professional Footballers’ Association’s player of the year award must go to a Liverpool star this season, ruling out City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne as a serious contender for the honour.

Foden, who stroked home City’s third goal at Watford from close range, said: ‘We weren’t like ourselves against Arsenal. I don’t think the energy was there from minute one and we were disappointed and we wanted to be back on track today.

‘I think we did that well. You could see we were pressing from the front and back to our normal selves.

‘I feel good at the moment. I’m performing quite well. I just want to keep going and improving.

‘There’s still a far way to go for me to be a regular starter. I’m going to try and take it into the rest of this year and keep going from there.’