Football
Jonathan Smith, Manchester City correspondent 5y

Man City's Guardiola: Tottenham, Man United in Premier League title race

MANCHESTER, England -- Pep Guardiola insists it is not a two-horse race for the Premier League title and has refused to rule out Tottenham Hotspur or even a resurgent Manchester United.

Manchester City suffered a 2-1 defeat to Newcastle United a week ago but after back-to-back draws by Liverpool -- most recently Monday's 1-1 result at West Ham -- they can move back to the top of the Premier League with a win at Everton on Wednesday night.

Spurs are two points behind City while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's United are 11 points back and Guardiola expects the Premier League battle to go until late in the season.

Asked about Tottenham's challenge, the City boss told a news conference: "That's a question for yourself. I never said Tottenham is not [in the race], I never made an opinion about that. I never said Tottenham was not there. Or Chelsea.

"United is now making this run every single week and they will be there to fight for the Premier League.

"Chelsea can win games in a row and be a contender too, everybody's there, the gap is not too big. There are 39 points to play and nine or 10 behind it's not too much. Seeing what happens now, everyone is ready to take points."

City are three points behind Liverpool and Guardiola also rejected suggestions that they were now favourites for the title.

"Three or four days ago we were already done, the champions were Liverpool and now we are favourites and maybe in three days we are leading or seven points behind," he said.

"We try to be calm in this situation. There will be surprises and it will be tough for teams to win every games because the contenders and the non-contenders have the ability to create problems.

"What I'm more concerned is to never forget who we are as a team, doing what we have to do and we are strong team. That is what I want to watch every day."

Everton, meanwhile, are in a run of bad form having been knocked out of the FA Cup by Championship side Everton and have won just three of their last 12 Premier League matches.

But Guardiola has advised the Toffees to stick with under-pressure manager Marco Silva.

"People don't know how difficult it is to create teams," Guardiola said. "People think that I buy three or four players, a new manager and everything switches immediately. It takes time.

"My advice if they believe in him they have to move forward with him. No one can be sure with a new manager it's going to be better. It's difficult to create and to build something."

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