Rodri & Guardiola downbeat about City’s title chances | OneFootball

Rodri and Pep Guardiola have insisted they’ll keep fighting in the Premier League title race, but it’s clear they both believe their chances are fading after more dropped points on Saturday.

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After Arsenal’s last-minute win over Everton and Manchester City’s failure to defeat West Ham United, the gap at the top of the table is up to nine points.

There’s still potential to close it, with City having a game in hand and a match at home to Arsenal in the final two months of the season. But even wins in both of those fixtures would leave the Gunners with a three-point lead for the remaining games.

After City’s draw with West Ham, Rodri was asked whether the title race is over now.

“Maybe yes, maybe no,” Rodri said. “We’re not going to drop hands, we’re going to keep fighting. We know it’s going to be difficult because we have this experience of what you need to win at the end. I think the distance is too far but we’re going to fight until the end.”

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Pep Guardiola was initially more emphatic that the title race remains on, but he proceeded to talk about City’s title chances in the past tense.

“Nah, it’s not over,” Guardiola said to TNT Sports after the game. “We’ll continue. We have an incredible team spirit, we fought after an incredible amount of effort in Madrid. Until the end, we continue.

“We didn’t score enough goals (this season) when we had the quality to score. (In the past) a team can score one goal, even two, but always we had that ability to score a lot, a lot, a lot. I don’t know how many times we scored five goals in ten years.

“This season, we had the chance. I remember perfectly Sunderland, Chelsea at home, Brighton at home, today, Nottingham Forest.

“Except two games, Arsenal away and United away, where we didn’t deserve anything, the rest we have been better. Unfortunately we didn’t score enough goals. That’s punished us this season.”

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Match of the Day pundit Ashley Williams admitted that he thinks the title is heading to north London now, saying: “Yeah, I’ve got to be honest, I think it’s Arsenal’s now.

“I just think that the way City aren’t putting those performances together or grinding out wins and Arsenal seem to be doing that. I think that’s just the difference this season.”

But former City goalkeeper Joe Hart wasn’t so convinced, believing his former club can still draw on their past title-winning experience to get themselves back into the race.

“It looks tough. That would have hurt them, no doubt about it, seeing that Everton game unfold before the game today,” Hart began. “But it’s never over, you’re never going to give up.

“One thing that we had in common, especially in 2014, Liverpool hadn’t won that league for a long time and they came unstuck when we put the pressure on. Arsenal haven’t won the league for a long time.

“They’re in an incredible position, they’re having a great season. But Manchester City know that they can put pressure on them.”