Pep Guardiola has claimed that Manchester City “cannot win” the Premier League after defeat to Manchester United on Saturday.
City appeared on course for three points at Old Trafford when Jack Grealish opened the scoring on the hour mark, but United levelled in controversial circumstances 18 minutes later.
A through ball from Casemiro aimed towards Marcus Rashford brought the in-form United forward within inches of touching the ball in an offside position, but the England striker allowed the ball to run to Bruno Fernandes, who swept past Ederson for the equaliser.
Rashford then scored the winner on 82 minutes, bringing Erik ten Hag’s side to a point behind City having both played 18 games.
Arsenal are five points clear of City having played a game fewer than both Manchester sides, and speaking to BT Sport after the match, Guardiola appeared to concede the title.
“We played really good,” he said, before praising United.” They are an incredible threat in their transitions, I congratulate the team. They run behind us and punished us in the transitions.”
Turning to the controversial leveller, he believes that Rashford had an impact on play.
He said: “Rashford was offside, he distracted our ‘keeper and distracted our central defenders. The rule is the rule but I know how we play.
“The second half was really good. We missed a little bit up front, we were a little bit disconnected, but we made a fantastic game.”
He then said he was not worried about being unable to win the league or Carabao Cup this season, after being knocked out of the latter in midweek at the hands of Southampton.
He claimed: “I don’t care about the Premier League or the Carabao Cup, we cannot win. We have won a lot so it is not a problem. Problem is we have performed like we have done. Today we performed.
“We focus on Spurs in a few days.”
