Pep Guardiola believes the best teams can be easily identified by the way in which they react to setbacks.
So, with Manchester City having suffered their first loss in 28 matches in last weekend's shock derby defeat at home to Manchester United, the Catalan coach will be demanding a strong response against Southampton on Wednesday night.
His side may still be 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League table, and with just 10 rounds remaining, but Guardiola doesn't care.
An immediate return to winning ways is the only thing that matters, as far as he's concerned.
“The perspective of how many games we have to win and what we have done is bullsh*t, that doesn't help you," the City boss told reporters. "Focus on Southampton and our performance especially!"
City's 21-match winning run was always going to come to an end eventually and Guardiola firmly believes that there are positives to be gleaned from a negative result.
“I sometimes love to lose – when you don’t lose competitions,” he added. “It just makes you realise how difficult everything is in sport.
“That’s why we give credit to ourselves. If, at the end of the season, we are fighting for titles and maybe even win some, then that's the time to say: ‘Wow, how good were we!'
“It’s going to be really tough, though, and everything can happen. We have been able to win a lot of games but we can still lose a lot of games.
“Nobody can provide assurances. Just because we lost against United, that doesn’t mean we’ll lose many more games now. And just because we won 21 games in a row, that doesn’t mean we are going to win many more games.
“Every game, we start from zero."
Guardiola has undeniably done a fine job of instilling that attitude into his players. They nearly always bounce back from a defeat. Indeed, during the 2017-18 title-winning season, every time City dropped any points in the Premier League, they won their next fixture.
City did suffer back-to-back losses, to Crystal Palace and Leicester, during the following campaign, leaving them seven points behind leaders Liverpool. But the response was stunning.
There would be only one more blip during the second half of the season – a defeat at Newcastle – as City clinched the title by a point, sensationally winning their final 14 matches.
Even last season, when they finished well behind Liverpool, City never dropped points in successive matches.
The early part of this campaign was different, of course. Guardiola’s side were struggling for fitness and form at the start of 2020-21 and they dropped points in consecutive games on three separate occasions.
However, after draws with United and West Brom in the middle of December, City won 15 Premier League games in a row to open up a commanding lead at the summit of the standings.
Guardiola won't be expecting a similar run of victories after the United defeat but minds will undoubtedly have been sharpened by the setback.
Just three weeks ago, the manager admitted that how his side reacted to a defeat would tell him whether they were ready to compete for trophies , mindful of the uncertainty and demands posed by the Covid-19 global health pandemic.
So far, he remains confident that his troops will come out fighting.
“When I see the training sessions yesterday and today, I don't have any doubts,” Guardiola said ahead of Wednesday’s game.
"That's because of the desire to get the ball, how they communicated, how they talked, how they were upset when they made a mistake but reacted immediately.
“But that is not important. What is important is having that feeling tomorrow at the right moment. It depends on them. They know they can do it, so it's up to them to do it in the right moment.”
It would still take a monumental wobble from City for United to pull themselves back into contention for the title, but in this most unpredictable of seasons, anything is possible.
Champions Liverpool were on a 68-game unbeaten streak at Anfield until they were surprisingly beaten by Burnley in January. They have now lost six in succession.
A defeat to Southampton would then lead to an uncomfortable trip to Fulham, who are desperately fighting for survival, and throw up the prospect of the title race being opened up again.
Guardiola, though, remains calm.
“I am more relaxed than ever, despite knowing we can lose the Premier League,” he added. “Everything we have done here, we won it together. Nobody gave us anything.
“We won it, every piece of the cake of all the titles we won. We did it for ourselves and this will not be an exception.”
