Guardiola: It is unrealistic to expect Man City to catch Liverpool in Premier League title race

The manager says the defending champions are focused on securing a spot in next season's Champions League rather than catching Liverpool at the top

Pep Guardiola believes will be almost impossible to catch in the Premier League title race, describing them as an “incredibly strong” side.

Jurgen Klopp’s side haven’t lost a game in the Premier League since a 2-1 defeat at the Etihad way back in January, and Guardiola believes this makes them unlikely to drop too many more points this season.

The manager watched his side see off Leicester on Saturday, moving to within one point of Brendan Rodgers side who remain in second place.

They are still 11 points behind Liverpool though, and the league leaders now have a game in hand after a week away from Premier League action to take part in the Club World Cup.

“When a team has 16 victories from 17, it’s unrealistic to think we are going to chase them,” said Guardiola.

“It’s unrealistic right now. We have to try to win our games, secure [qualification] for next season.”

Man City were back to their best against Leicester, led by an all-action display from Kevin De Bruyne in midfield, and buoyed by the return from injury of Sergio Aguero who came off the bench late in the game.

Riyad Mahrez also stood out, scoring the opening goal and providing a constant threat against his former club.

City sealed the win with an Ilkay Gundogan penalty and a Gabriel Jesus strike assisted by De Bruyne and as he continued to speak about the game, Guardiola seemed to convince himself, even if only for a brief moment, that Liverpool can be caught.

“In football, you never know, no?” he added. “If [Liverpool] drop points in a couple of games and we win, win and win, I don’t know.

“When one team loses one game in their last 53, 54 game, I’m not optimistic they are going to lose four or five in 10 or 11 games because they are incredibly strong.

“So we must relax and play like this and we’ll see in the end what happens.

“Hopefully Leicester can make a good performance against Liverpool [on Boxing Day] but we’ve to think about our incredibly tough game against , with Adama [Traore] and [Raul] Jimenez."