‘It’s a season to survive’, says Guardiola after latest setback against Crystal Palace all but extinguishes title hopes.
‘It’s a season to survive’. These were the words from Man City manager Pep Guardiola after they drew 2-2 away to Crystal Palace. Guardiola has said Manchester City face an uphill battle to regain their Premier League title.
Erling Haaland and Rico Lewis matched Crystal Palace’s goals from Daniel Muñoz and Maxence Lacroix, saving City from suffering their sixth consecutive away loss across all competitions. However, Lewis will miss next Sunday’s Manchester derby at the Etihad after receiving a second yellow card in the 84th minute, which reduced the visiting team to 10 men at Selhurst Park. Lewis stood in at left-back after injuries sidelined Nathan Aké and Manuel Akanji.
As City gets ready to play Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday in Turin, they are already without a number of first-team players, and Guardiola admitted that injuries had affected his team. With one more game remaining, City is eight points behind leaders Liverpool.
“It’s a season to survive. We cannot talk about the title race when we lose four games in a row and draw,” he said. “Unfortunately we are missing an important player for us this season for the next game against United at home. But in general what they have done in the circumstances is really good.
“We knew it from the beginning that we have been unlucky in many things and we have to continue with that with the players we have at our disposal.”
Guardiola expressed concern about their workload, but Jérémy Doku and Jack Grealsih were added as late substitutes. Although he was dissatisfied with his team’s defensive play for Palace’s second goal from a corner, he was thrilled that Haaland scored to tie Mohamed Salah for the most league goals with 13.
“We are lucky we have him,” he said. “We are so lucky we have him this season, lucky we have Rico [Lewis], lucky we have Bernardo [Silva], [Ilkay] Gündo, all these players, Josko [Gvardiol]. All these players that all season have been playing and playing without rest. We are so lucky for these four, five, six players …”