Pep Guardiola seemed to give up on the Premier League title race after Manchester City's defeat by Manchester United.
The champions were beaten 2-1 on home soil in the Manchester derby and fell 14 points behind runaway leaders Liverpool.
And that led to some strange post-match comments from Guardiola when he appeared to admit that Jurgen Klopp's side were too far gone.
Asked about the gap to Liverpool, Guardiola said: "It's not time to think about that. Whether it's six, seven, eight or nine points, I say the same every time. We think about what we have to do and we think about the next game.
"It's unrealistic to think about catching up, whether it's six points, seven points, 14 points, two points. We are a fantastic team, we can play so good."
First-half goals from Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial condemned Manchester City to defeat in the derby on Saturday night.
Guardiola admitted his team were undone by a brilliant counter-attacking game plan from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side.
He said: "We couldn't control those situations today because of the quality United have. Of course we can improve, but they have quality.
"Sometimes we can control it. Sometimes we struggle."
Liverpool, meanwhile, won 3-0 at Bournemouth to continue their relentless form to make it 15 wins and one draw from 16 games.
They moved 11 points clear of second-placed Leicester with Brendan Rodgers' side set to play Aston Villa with their game in hand on Sunday.
source https://www.sportbible.com/football/football-guardiola-seemingly-concedes-title-race-to-liverpool-after-derby-loss-20191207
0 Comments