Pep Guardiola waved the white flag on Manchester City’s title hopes following their 4-0 thrashing at Everton on Sunday. City now trail Premier League leaders Chelsea by 10 points after the Toffees matched the heaviest loss of Guardiola’s managerial career.
It was their fourth defeat in the past eight league matches and kept them firmly in fifth place.
“Yes, ” Guardiola said when asked the gap were too large to overcome. “The first one (first place) is a 10-point gap and that is a lot.
“The second one is three points, so we have to see.”
City dominated with 71 per cent possession at Goodison Park but allowed four goals from the six shots they faced. Everton’s opener from Romelu Lukaku came on their only attempt of the first half and Kevin Mirallas doubled the lead just after the restart.
Late goals from youngsters Tom Davies and Ademola Lookman completed the rout and left Guardiola ruing his team’s luck on the day.
“We made a good performance in the first half and we created enough chances to score a goal, ” Guardiola said.
“And what happened after, we were not able to score a goal and they arrived once and scored a goal and in the second half they scored another quick goal and that is so tough mentally for the players.”
Defending has been at the heart of City’s problems most of the season. Their 26 goals conceded are the most of the top seven while their four clean sheets are fewer than Middlesbrough, Southampton, Bournemouth, West Ham and Leicester in the bottom half of the table.
“The consistency in clean sheets depends on how we create in front,” Guardiola said.
“It would be a huge mistake to blame everything on one person, but of course this is the first time I’ve conceded a lot of goals.
“It’s never happened before. That’s why I have to know the reason why.”
Things don’t get any easier as City next host second-placed Tottenham, who won the first meeting between the sides 2-0 back in October.
“I spoke with the players for the last three weeks to forget about the table, focus on the next game and do our best,” Guardiola said.
“Now we have one week to think about what we can do to beat Tottenham.
“In the bad moments we have to be close and I said to the players be positive because you made some fantastic things during the season and for many reasons we didn’t get what I think we deserved but I think all the managers can say that.
“We are going to try and keep going.”
– dpa/NAN
