Premier League title race not over – Guardiola insists

Pep Guardiola insists the Premier League title race is still alive despite Manchester City dropping points in a damaging 1–1 draw against West Ham United on Saturday.

City had taken the lead at the London Stadium through Bernardo Silva in the first half, but Konstantinos Mavropanos headed West Ham level before the break.

The result came just hours after Arsenal recorded a 2–0 victory over Everton, extending their advantage at the top of the table to nine points over Man City.

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Although Guardiola’s side still have a game in hand and will host Arsenal later in April, many pundits believe the defending champions’ hopes are fading with only eight matches remaining.

However, Guardiola dismissed suggestions that the title race is already decided.

“It’s not over. Who said that? We didn’t lose. We will continue,” Guardiola said.

“Nine points is a lot against Arsenal, but it happened. We have the game at home, so we have to try until the end.

When it is not possible, then we congratulate the champion, but we have to try.”

History offers little encouragement for City. The only team to win the Premier League after trailing by at least nine points, having played 30 or more matches, was City themselves in the 2013/14 season.

City’s recent form has been far from convincing. They have drawn their last two league matches against relegation-threatened West Ham and Nottingham Forest.

The struggles continued in midweek when Guardiola’s side suffered a heavy 3–0 defeat to Real Madrid in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League last-16 tie.

City now face a demanding run of fixtures. They host Real Madrid in the second leg next week before meeting Arsenal in the EFL Cup Final and then facing Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

Despite the setbacks, Guardiola believes his team still has the quality and resilience to respond.

“We have an incredible team spirit. We had an incredible amount of effort in Madrid,” he said.

“The last two games we played much, much better. The players keep going until we cannot continue, but we didn’t score enough goals when we had the quality, and they punished us.”