He recalled: "I remember (people saying) you couldn't win the Premier League without tackling, those kind of things, but since then I've forgotten. That's part of the process, it gave me the energy.
"In football you have to get the energy inside and say 'OK, we're going to prove you are wrong'. Otherwise you're flat, you're comfortable, you get a lot of compliments, but compliments take out the necessary energy to compete."
Guardiola also said: "Even if we don't win it, (the players) have been so fine in this period. Still we are here together, nothing's going to change.
"But if you ask all the Premier League teams at the beginning of the season what would be the better position in the last game of the season, we are in the best position. That's for sure. We have one game left, destiny's in our hands."