Man City boss Pep Guardiola issues rallying cry after Bernardo Silva fears 'dark place' following latest loss

The Premier League side finished the game with 11 more shots than Sporting and over 72 per cent possession.

But Viktor Gyokeres stole the show for the hosts with a hat-trick as Guardiola and the City players left the pitch with their tails between their legs.

Guardiola admits the mood is low inside the City dressing room with the reigning Premier League champions on a three-game losing streak.

However, the Spaniard insists he isn't ready to throw in the towel and has called on his players to join him in relishing the challenge.

"Now is a difficult moment in terms of results, but I am here," he said.

"I want to be here and I want to fight and not give up. I want to work hard. I like this challenge as a manager I have ahead of me and who wants to follow us will be there."

Guardiola felt City were unfortunate in parts due to a lapse in concentration at key moments, but paid credit to Sporting for getting the result.

"You cannot say much when you lose 4-1, the result is there," he added.

"Congratulations Sporting Lisbon for the game. We make a fantastic first half and now we're struggling to score when we create and we concede.

"The first half was very, very good from my point of view. We scored a goal and created a lot but every pass and the simple things we missed sometimes, they can run and punish us a little bit.

"It can happen for the second half and after the third and the fourth we have to avoid it.

"Emotionally we are not stable enough and in this competition you have to be stable.

"2-1 is 2-1, many things and many minutes happen but we cannot give away the two actions - third and fourth goal. We have to be emotionally more stable."

Guardiola's rallying cry came after Silva struggled to find the words to describe the mood around the club following their latest loss.

"It's disappointing because we're a bit in a dark place right now. Everything looks to be going in the wrong way," Silva said.

"Even when we are playing well we don't score our chances and we concede too easily. We definitely need to look inside and check what we're not doing well. And we need to get better very quickly otherwise it will be very difficult to come back from these losses.

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"It's football. It's difficult to find reasons for what is happening to us. I don't remember in seven-and-a-half seasons this team losing three games in a row. It just looks like this team is going the wrong way now.

"The good thing is even though we have lost these three games we are still in a good position especially in the Premier League. After losing three games we are still in the main competitions fighting for everything. But we need to better, obviously.

"Our injured players need to come back because we need them and it's just not good enough tonight."