{"id":534199,"date":"2026-03-13T18:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/534199\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T18:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:10:07","slug":"pep-guardiola-manchester-city-boss-says-title-race-is-over-if-they-drop-points-at-west-ham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/534199\/","title":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola: Manchester City boss says title race is ‘over’ if they drop points at West Ham"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pep Guardiola has said the Premier League title race will be “over” if his Manchester City<\/a> side drop points at West Ham<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Second-placed City sit seven points behind leaders Arsenal<\/a> though with a game in hand – nine games remaining compared to Arsenal<\/a>‘s eight. The sides also meet in a potentially pivotal fixture at Etihad Stadium on 19 April. <\/p>\n

However, Guardiola is not looking beyond this weekend, saying: “Now it’s West Ham<\/a>. The Premier League is the most difficult title. <\/p>\n

“We’re still there, knowing that if we drop points it will be over.<\/p>\n

West Ham<\/a> are battling at the other end in the table and find themselves in the relegation zone, below 17th-placed Nottingham Forest<\/a> on goal difference only.<\/p>\n

However, their results have improved lately and the Hammers have lost just one of their past five Premier League matches.<\/p>\n

Guardiola knows Nuno Espirito Santo’s side are fighting for points, but the Spaniard said City “are desperate too”.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always said when we arrive in the last 10 games every team plays for something – for relegation, for Europa League, for Conference League, for Champions League, to be champions. It’s normal, every game,” Guardiola said.<\/p>\n

“Now there are no second chances.”<\/p>\n

Guardiola did not want to dwell on Wednesday’s 3-0 defeat<\/a> by Real Madrid in the Champions League last-16 before their trip to London Stadium.<\/p>\n

“Tomorrow night, we have a game, an important one for the Premier League position. Then we have the second leg,” he said on Friday.<\/p>\n

City, who lost in the knockout play-off round in the Champions League last season, will host Real Madrid in the return leg on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“It is a pleasure to be here. Last season we could not reach this stage, so it is nice,” Guardiola added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola has said the Premier League title race will be “over” if his Manchester City side drop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-534199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}