Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said his side would have to accept criticism after an indifferent start to the 2020-21 season.
City are in 13th place in the Premier League after beginning the campaign with two wins, two draws and a 5-2 defeat to Leicester City.
The team's Champions League campaign is off to a better start, with last week's 3-1 win over Porto followed by Tuesday's 3-0 victory at Marseille.
Ferran Torres, Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling scored at the Stade Velodrome as Guardiola's men went top of Group C.
It was an important result for City, who have faced plenty of criticism after Guardiola made his worst ever start to a league season as a head coach.
The Spaniard said he understands why his side have been under fire – even if circumstances this season have made things extra challenging.
"We have to accept the criticism," Guardiola told BT Sport. "We play every three days, when you win it's good but if you don't people want to destroy everything.
"But it's about the chairman and everyone else understanding. Part of the criticism was right, but you've got to accept it. It's part of our job.
"It's about where we've come from in the last month, with lack of preparation, injuries and Covid-19 but the Champions League is in a good place now. I'm sure we're going to find that consistency."
Guardiola also expressed his satisfaction at City's performance on a night when they comprehensively defeated last season's Ligue 1 runners-up.
"We played really well, we didn't concede much and we were in control, patient and aggressive without the ball," Guardiola added. "I'm so satisfied with the performance and result, it's always difficult to win away.
"We can play on both sides, we tried to play high and wide to stretch the pitch. Raheem Sterling was exceptional, Phil [Foden] as well. We didn't expect them to play five at the back until we saw the team. Porto was the same. As much as we play against five at the back we started to take the control and rhythm.
"We were so stable defensively. Aymeric [Laporte] was good, Kyle [Walker] is in the best form since we've been together, Oleksandr [Zinchenko] helped us, John [Stones] played good minutes. I'm so satisfied with the way we played."
