Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has admitted that his team has little to no hope of winning a fifth consecutive league title after dropping two points at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
The Cityzens failed to secure back-to-back league wins after fighting back twice to rescue a point against Crystal Palace. Before their 2-2 draw with the Eagles, Guardiola’s side had lost four consecutive EPL games, leaving them 11 points adrift of league leaders Liverpool at the time.
However, their midweek 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest reduced the deficit to nine points after the Reds failed to beat Newcastle.
With just one win and a draw in their last six Premier League games, the defending champions sit fourth with 27 points, eight points behind Liverpool, despite playing a game more.
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What Guardiola said
Guardiola, speaking at his press conference after Saturday’s game, appeared to have given up on winning the league title this season.
“We take a point. We fought incredibly and came back twice. It’s a season to suffer. We’ll see what happens in the last months,” the Spanish manager said, as per ESPN.
“We cannot talk about the title race when we lose four games in a row and draw. We’ll try to recover players. We’ll see in the last month.”
City next face Juventus away in the Champions League in midweek, another competition where they have suffered setbacks recently. Having picked up just one point from their last two UCL games, including a 3-3 draw against Feyenoord on matchday five, where they squandered a three-goal lead, they have slipped out of the top eight.
Currently 17th in the standings, they will hope to secure three points when they travel to Turin as they look to revive their hopes of automatic qualification for the next phase.
