Unstoppable Guardiola concedes title to Liverpool
City manager admits 22 points is too big a gap Mourinho says Sterling deserved to be sent off
Pep Guardiola crowned “unstoppable” Liverpool this season’s Premier League champions by conceding the title after his Manchester City team fell 22 points behind the leaders.
Despite registering 18 shots on goal and missing a penalty, City were beaten by a Tottenham Hotspur side who scored with two of their three shots.
Guardiola stayed with his players in the dressing room for around 45 minutes after City’s defeat, which he admitted made catching Jurgen Klopp’s side impossible.
Asked if he accepted that the title was now Liverpool’s, City manager Guardiola nodded before saying: “They are far away, so they are unstoppable. They have a lot of points, we have dropped points quite similar to today. Our targets are to win the remaining competitions and qualify for the Champions League next season.”
Guardiola refused to criticise his City team for surrendering their title to Liverpool so early in the season and pointed to former Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore’s complaint that his own team had pulled too far clear after winning the league by 19 points two years ago.
“The last two seasons, they said City winning the title was bad for the Premier League and that it could not happen again,” Guardiola said. “The Premier League said someone has to stop City getting 100 points and winning it again. So now it is Liverpool you have to be concerned with about the Premier League. Two seasons ago we finished with 100 points and I do not know how many points we finished as leaders, 18 or 19 points. Liverpool are strong right now.”
Having seen Ilkay Gundogan fail to score from the penalty spot, Guardiola blamed his team’s finishing for their defeat and refused to comment on Raheem Sterling’s challenge on Dele Alli that Tottenham head coach Jose Mourinho claimed deserved a red card.
After seeing the video assistant referee rule that Sterling’s offence warranted a booking, Mourinho said: “It is a red card. It is a direct red card for Sterling. I know that [the referee] Mike Dean has a difficult job. He is on the pitch, it’s 200mph. I wouldn’t like to be a referee because it is so difficult. So for me Mike Dean, good performance. The problem is the VAR.”
Sterling was eventually substituted with what looked like a hamstring injury, but Guardiola did not know the extent of it, adding: “I haven’t spoken with the doctor.”
Asked if he had remained in the dressing room with his players for so long because he was angry, Guardiola said: “No I’m not angry. Normally I don’t like it if we don’t play good, if we don’t run or we don’t fight. Never when we lose do I stay away from my players because
‘Our targets are to win the remaining competitions and qualify for the Champions League’
I know them. But we lost the game, so we talked about how to move forward and keep going. There’s a lot of months to play and try to do it.”
Tottenham are now just four points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, but Mourinho has an injury concern over Alli, who was forced off with an ankle problem. “Four points to Chelsea, but maybe one point to Sheffield United, or two to Manchester United,” Mourinho said. “So we look up, we also look down. “I look to my team and my squad, with the problems we have had with injuries it is going to be hard. If we lose Dele Alli, I cannot imagine. I know that the players are fantastic, I know that they are ready to give everything. But let’s go match after match. We have a difficult one now, an FA Cup match in three days.”
Asked if Alli’s injury was his ankle, Mourinho added: “Yes and since that moment he was, ‘Can I stay on the pitch or not?’ The same at half-time, the second half the same discussion and then he realised he couldn’t carry on.”