Guardiola says Manchester City has ‘no chance’ of winning

LEICESTER, England:

Even after marking his 500th game in charge of Manchester City with a much-needed victory, Pep Guardiola insisted his team has "no chance" of winning a fifth straight English Premier League title.

Guardiola looked visibly relieved after City ended a five-game winless run in all competitions by beating Leicester 2-0 yesterday, only a second victory in 14 matches after the worst stretch of results in the Spanish manager's illustrious career.

The win still left City 14 points behind Liverpool after the leaders trounced West Ham 5-0 away, with Arne Slot's team also having a game in hand. So after winning an unprecedented four straight Premier League titles, Guardiola has already written off his team's chances before reaching January.

"We are far away from winning the Premier League. We accept there's already no chance of that, but we have other things to fight for," Guardiola said.

A team that used to easily beat teams like relegation-threatened Leicester by three or four goals found itself pegged back for much of the game despite Savinho's 21st-minute opener, and the hosts missed several good chances to equalise before Erling Haaland headed home City's second in the 74th.

"Just relief, that is the word to express how all of us feel," Guardiola said.

For the first time in a while, Guardiola had a genuine smile on his face as he walked onto the pitch after the final whistle to hug his players and applaud the fans after taking his tally to 362 wins in his 500 games -- along with 18 trophies.

"The players have given me a good present today, celebrating 500 games like this," he said.

1979 FEEL

Also, the English league table is starting to have a 1979 kind of feel to it. Nottingham Forest climbed provisionally up to second place behind Liverpool with a 2-0 win over Everton to continue their surprising push for a Champions League place.

Forest finished second behind Liverpool in 1979 - the same year they won the first of two straight European Cups under Brian Clough - but haven't finished that high in the domestic first division since then.

Chris Wood put Forest ahead against Everton with a delicate lob in the 15th minute after linking up with Anthony Elanga on a quick counterattack, and then set up Morgan Gibbs-White to double the lead in the 61st.

Forest could find themselves back in fourth place by January 1 as they are only one point above Arsenal and two ahead of Chelsea, with both London clubs having a game in hand.

Liverpool could prove a lot harder to overtake, though, as Slot's team only seems to be growing stronger and stronger.

The performance at West Ham was one of their most impressive yet, with five different players getting on the scoresheet -- including Mohamed Salah, who netted the team's third for his league-leading 17th of the season.

Salah also had an assist to take his tally to 52 goal contributions in all competitions for the calendar year 2024 -- 29 goals and 23 assists.

But the Egyptian remained evasive over the speculation about his future beyond the end of this season, when his contract expires.

- AP