Ben Guest
Pep Guardiola admitted that it is ‘unrealistic’ to even consider that Man City could still catch Liverpool after his side threw away a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 to Wolves.
Man City came into the game 14 points behind the runaway league leaders, who had demolished second placed Leicester just 24 hours previous with a devastatingly brilliant performance.
The Citizens hopes of cutting the gap were dealt an early blow when Ederson was sent off after the Brazilian raced off his line in the 12th minute to wipe out the onrushing Diogo Jota.
The reigning Champions did however take the lead, Raheem Sterling scoring the rebound after his retaken penalty was saved by Rui Patricio, before the England international doubled his tally early in the second half with a deft finish.
However, with the benefit of the additional man and some shoddy defending, Wolves would stage a brilliant comeback, goals from Adama Traore, Raul Jimenez and Matt Doherty sealing the win, and forcing Pep Guardiola to admit that his sides title hopes are finally over after weeks of trying to convince us otherwise.
“It’s unrealistic when it’s 14 points to think about Liverpool,” the Catalan told his post match press conference.
“We think about Leicester, we have the chance to recover second position.
“Still we are third, I know the quality of the team but that’s the situation.
“In the last two previous seasons we are used to winning a lot of games and being at the top fighting.
“Now we are far away so we have to adjust mentally to the situation and prepare for the next games.
“We have to move on, we played the first season and it was quite similar to this but in the second and the third we were there all the time and winning all the time.
“Now this season in some situations and after some mistakes we are far away, we have to catch the second one and see where we are at the end.”
City now play Sheffield United on Sunday afternoon in what is a relentless festive fixture list while Wolves play Liverpool.
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See also – Premier League Festive Football – Five things we learned on Boxing Day