London June 26 : Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, after losing to Chelsea 1-2 on Friday, said the club did not have the same passion as Liverpool, who played their every game like it was their last game and lifted the Premier League title after a gap of 30 years.
As City lost to Chelsea means Liverpool have an unassailable 23-point lead over City with seven games left in the competition. In 1989-90 the Reds were last crowned as England’s top-flight champions.
City are the defending champions of the tournament and placed at the second spot, 23 points behind from Liverpool.
“We won eight titles in a row which had never happened before in this country. It can happen to miss one. We lost Vincent Kompany to Anderlecht and had Aymeric Laporte injured. After we won those titles maybe we did not have the same passion as Liverpool,” Goal.com quoted Guardiola as saying.
City have won the Premier League title for two consecutive seasons in 2018-19 and 2019-20. They have bagged six titles of the English top-flight so far.
“After two seasons the gap is big. We were not consistent like the previous seasons. Liverpool won the Champions League and were given confidence. They played every game like it was their last game. In the beginning, we did not play like that way,” City boss said.
Guardiola congratulated the Reds for the great season and said his side will look to shorten the gap with Liverpool in their remaining games.
“Congratulations to Liverpool for this great season. We still have five or six weeks to play but we won a lot in the last few years and of course, we want to close the gap. We cannot forget we are still second in the league so we are better than a lot of the teams,” he said.
City will now take on Newcastle in the FA Cup on Sunday, June 28 followed by a clash against Liverpool on July 3.
