Man City held, Guardiola believes title race not over
JAKARTA - Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola still believes the English Premier League title race is not over. Previously, Guardiola said otherwise if Man City failed to beat West Ham United. However, Man City was only able to draw 1-1 against West Ham in a duel at London Stadium, Sunday, March 15, 2026 WIB.
Only able to get one point when Arsenal successfully beat Everton 2-0 in the previous match, Man City failed to approach the leader of the standings. Man City, who got 61 points, is still nine points behind Arsenal.
However, Guardiola remains optimistic that Man City has the opportunity to hunt down The Gunners because the competition still has seven matches left. Meanwhile, Arsenal is left with six matches and will visit Man City's home at the Etihad.
The match on April 19 will be the determination of the two teams. Moreover, Mikel Arteta's team will still meet three other London teams, Fulham, West Ham and Crystal Palace. Although all of them are in the lower middle, London Derby is more difficult to get three points.
Previously, ahead of the match against West Ham, Guardiola himself stated that if Man City lost points, then the league title race was over. "West Ham. Our target is West Ham," said Guardiola when asked about the decisive match in the Champions League against Real Madrid in the middle of this week.
"This match is not less difficult. Especially if the design that has been prepared does not go as it should. You have a game plan and when you apply it in the match do you have a chance [to win] or not. This is obviously difficult," he said again.
Guardiola also alluded to the club's policy of not making many player signings ahead of this season's competition. Meanwhile, he realized The Cityzens played the toughest league.
"We don't have a lot of dollars [money] in the bank [to make a number of players]. But we'll see. It must also be admitted that the Premier League is a difficult and heavy league. In fact, according to me, this is the most difficult. We also know that if we fail to get points, the league battle is over," he replied.
Man City indeed lost points so they failed to reduce the points gap. The result was disappointing because they were ahead first through Bernardo Silva who scored in the 31st minute. However, the advantage did not last long. Defender Konstantinos Mavropanos managed to equalize to 1-1 just four minutes later.
In that match, Guardiola could not accompany the team after receiving a red card in the previous match against Newcastle United. Without him, his team still dominated the game and had a better ball possession.
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach also occasionally contacted his assistant Pep Lijnders by phone. However, they really struggled to penetrate the Hammers' defense.
Even striker Erling Haaland, who has a brilliant record against West Ham by scoring 11 goals, couldn't do anything. The only chance he got was when he greeted Rayan Ait Nouri's cross. But his header still soared high above the crossbar.
The draw did not disappoint Guardiola. Instead he stated about the continuation of the competition in the domestic competition.
"This is not over because we are not losing," said Guardiola, who believes one postponed game against Palace and a game against Arsenal at the Etihad will be decisive.
"We still have one match and there is one more match at home. So we will try until the end. If it fails, we will certainly congratulate the champion," he said.
"But what is clear is that we will continue to move forward because we have an amazing team and are very excited. We still fight even though we have exhausted ourselves in Madrid. Now the players will rest first and then we prepare for Madrid," said Guardiola.
The match against Madrid is also not easy. The reason is, Man City has lost 3-0 in the first match at the Santiago Bernabeu. When hosting Los Merengues, they must be able to catch up with the goal deficit.