“Really tough” — Pep Guardiola makes Premier League title race admission after Burnley victory

Pep Guardiola has admitted he is unsure of Manchester City’s Premier League title race hopes after 20 games this season.

The Etihad outfit ran out 3-1 winners against Burnley in the Premier League Wednesday evening, as Erling Haaland returned to the team, and Kevin De Bruyne made his first start since August.

A brace from Julian Alvarez was backed up by an early second-half Rodri strike seeing the Blues cruise to a fourth straight win in the Premier League, keeping their gap behind league leaders to Liverpool, though Guardiola’s side have a game in hand.

City are once again in pole position to win a record fourth straight Premier League title, but they will have to fend off a resurgent Liverpool side who haven’t lost in the competition since September.

Speaking after the match against the Clarets, Pep Guardiola was level-headed when it came to his view on his side’s prospects in the Premier League title race.

“I don’t know, we are there. What is important is that we are there,” Guardiola said.

“I know now that in the first part of the season it’s a lot of games, now we are discounting games, and we know that if we drop points with the quality of Arsenal and Liverpool, and maybe another one.

“But we did our job, now we recover. On Monday we go to a place that last season we could not win just not even one point, always for us it has been really, really tough.

“And yeah, one game at a time and we will see what happens.”

Guardiola has been on the winning end of quite a few title races, besting Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool on the final day of the season on multiple occasions.

But with the news that the German manager will leave Anfield at the 2023/24 season, the Reds could have an emotional edge over Pep Guardiola’s men.

Next up for Manchester City is a trip to Brentford to face off with a Bees outfit with just one win in their last five outings.