Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has hinted that he requires greater consistency in front of goal from his side next season, citing the number of Kevin De Bruyne's chances that have hit the crossbar.

City are still aiming to clinch a top-four finish this term but fell well short of Premier League champions Chelsea, leaving Guardiola to call on his team to be less wasteful come the start of next season.

"We can accept an opponent creating two, three or maybe four chances - it is impossible to avoid that - but we didn't score enough goals at home," said Guardiola, according to Sky Sports News.

"So, we have to play a little bit better to create more chances to score goals if we want to reduce that gap. Then maybe our gap against Chelsea and Tottenham will be shorter. If we don't, it will be the same.

"Kevin De Bruyne is the player with the most assists in the league [16] and he made 10, 11, 12 crossbars. So the difference between the crossbar and the goal is maybe centimetres.

"If you just score half of those situations maybe it is seven or eight more points. It is just to be a little bit more precise in those situations. I think we have the quality of players to score goals."

City require one point from their final league fixture away at Watford on Sunday in order to secure fourth place.