It has been a season to forget for City, which has gone without a major trophy for the first time since Guardiola’s first campaign in charge in 2016-2017, but it did defeat Manchester United to win the Community Shield in August.

City lost 1-0 to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final last weekend, but bounced back by comfortably beating Bournemouth 3-1 to move into third place on the league table.

It heads into the final match of the season away at Fulham needing just a draw to confirm UEFA Champions League qualification, but an Aston Villa loss against Manchester United would also do the trick.

Guardiola admitted that despite a challenging season, he is pleased that his side is in control of its own fate.

"It’s better arriving in the last game knowing it depends on you, it depends on us, yes it’s better," Guardiola said.

"We have to look at ourselves. We need one point to be in the Champions League next season and we have to go to win against a top side.

"The situation is clear, to play in the Champions League we have to take a result there and that’s what we’re going to do."

While Guardiola was understandably happy that Rodri marked his return to the squad after an anterior cruciate ligament injury that ruled him out of the majority of the season, he was quick to state that City’s struggles were not down just to the midfielder's absence.

He added: "Many things have happened this season. It was not just about Rodri, there have been many other challenges."

Fulham, meanwhile, has little to play for, with a spot in Europe now out of reach.

It sits in 10th place, having defeated Brentford 3-2 in its previous Premier League outing.

Fulham boss Marco Silva said that his side has been preparing for the City clash the same as it has for all its matches throughout the season.

He said: "Clearly, we have been working this week just like all the other weeks before. This is the last game of the season, but we try to get the same level of concentration.

"We reached 54 points for our football club, and we are going to fight and to enjoy the game. To embrace the challenge with our fans of playing the last game of the season against a top side."

Silva added that there have been discussions to renew the contracts of Kenny Tete and Tom Cairney, but Carlos Vinicius and Willian will likely depart the club in the summer.

"It is going to be the last time that [Vinicius and Willian] are going to be involved. Probably for both, it could be their last game with the Fulham shirt," he added.