Title race over if Manchester City don’t beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, admits Pep Guardiola

Title race over if Manchester City don’t beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, admits Pep Guardiola Pep Guardiola admits title race will be over if City fail to win at Stamford Bridge on Sunday City boss acknowledges Arsenal’s nine-point lead is ‘big’ despite Saturday’s loss to Bournemouth Guardiola says City’s famous winning ‘aura’ counts for nothing unless backed up on the pitch Pep Guardiola has admitted that Sunday’s Premier League clash with Chelsea is a must-win if Manchester City want to catch Arsenal in the title race. The Gunners suffered a shock 2-1 home defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday, handing City an opportunity to cut the gap at the top of the table. However, the nine-point deficit that separates the two clubs – with Arsenal also holding a game in hand – means Guardiola is under no illusions about the scale of the task that remains, with the City manager knowing exactly where his side stand heading into one of the most pivotal weeks of their season.

Chelsea vs Manchester City (Premier League): Match Preview, Team News, Head to Head, How to Watch City arrive at Stamford Bridge on the back of their best run of form of the campaign, having beaten Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final and demolished Liverpool 4-0 in the FA Cup quarter-final in successive outings either side of the international break. Assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders had already called on the squad to push Arsenal all the way as the Gunners showed signs of faltering – and Saturday’s result at the Emirates Stadium has only intensified the sense of possibility around Manchester City ‘s run-in. Guardiola: If we don’t win at Stamford Bridge, it will be over Previewing this weekend’s clash in west London on Friday, Guardiola was honest about what Sunday’s result means for the title race – and made clear that no press conference before next week’s Arsenal clash would be necessary if City fail to pick up three points in west London.

“We don’t have to make… Listen, I’m not to confess something special to the fact that what we have to do to be, until the last games of the season, Aston Villa or Brentford before, or Crystal Palace, to try to fight for the league,” he said in a press conference on Friday. “Talking about Arsenal? If you don’t win in Stamford Bridge, that is not an easy place to go, maybe you don’t need to make the press conference before Arsenal, because it will be over.

Everybody knows it. You know it, I know it, the players know it, everybody knows it in England. There’s how many games left, you have to win all of them.