WE’LL BE BACK
PEP HUNGRY TO RETRIEVE CROWN
PEP Guardiola congratulated Liverpool on winning the Premier League title after City’s defeat at Chelsea confirmed the race was over with seven games to spare.
The Blues entered the season as the first side to have won back-toback league championships for a decade, having pipped Jurgen Klopp’s team by a single point last May in a high-quality finale.
The Merseyside club have got even better and are on course to smash the record of 100 points set by the Blues back in 2018, while City have been unable to sustain the pace. Liverpool’s victory at Crystal
Palace meant that Guardiola’s men had to win at Stamford Bridge to delay the coronation by at least another week but goals from Christian Pulisic and Willian earned a 2-1 win for Frank Lampard that boosts his hopes of a top-four finish as well as confirming the champions.
Liverpool will now head to the Etihad next Thursday having already celebrated the title, with City hoping to look for success in the cups starting at Newcastle away in the FA Cup quarter-final on Sunday.
Guardiola was gracious about Klopp and Liverpool, adding to a relationship between the managers that has been far more friendly than spiky in front of the cameras.
He said: “Congratulations for Liverpool fans, the manager and the players. They are well deserved champions.”
As the City manager was asked further about the gap between the teams, he pointed to the hunger of Liverpool as they went for their first title in 30 years while not only did the Blues not have that, but also had a major issue with centre-back.
“We are far away but the other 18 teams are farther,” he said.
“Liverpool didn’t drop points so we have to recover for the next season to be more consistent and recover the points we missed this
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season. That is the reality when the gap is like this.
“Two seasons ago we had 25 points more than Liverpool, now they have the distance.
“In the last ten competitions we have played we have won eight which never happened in this country.
“You cannot win them all, it can happen to miss one. We lost Vincent Kompany and had Aymeric Laporte injured.
“After we won those titles maybe we didn’t have the same passion as Liverpool.
“We still have five or six weeks and a lot of things to play for and to think about, but what this club has done for the past decade is fight for the titles. We have won a lot in the last 10 years.
“We must finish to qualify for the Champions League, and especially on Sunday we have a big game against Newcastle and, of course, later Real Madrid.”
City’s defensive errors cost them against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last night. “At this level your mistakes are punished a lot but in terms of the way we play, we played good,” said Guardiola.
“Chelsea with their physicality and the way they play it was not easy and we didn’t have many clear chances in the box, but in general we played a good game.”