Pep Guardiola Urges Manchester City Players to Ignore Liverpool in Title Race

Pep Guardiola has called on his Manchester City players to focus on themselves rather than Liverpool in the Premier League title race.

The manager spoke after his side beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0 on Monday to bring the gap back to four points after Liverpool had beaten Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday to make it seven.

Per the Daily Mail's Jack Gaughan, he said:

"I don't have a magic ball to discover how many points we need. I said to them don't look at the schedule, don't watch the calendar for the Liverpool games, forget about it.

"Normally when that happens you lose your own games in my experience. Then it's over. If Liverpool win then I will congratulate Jurgen [Klopp] because it will be well deserved. All we can do is win our games."

City were leading the title race until December, but defeats to Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Leicester City allowed Liverpool in front.

The Sky Blues beat the Reds 2-1 in January to reduce the deficit to four points, but they're still relying on them to slip up before the end of the season to overhaul them.

Guardiola added:

"Maybe one day they [Liverpool] fail and we are there. If we don't win, they will be champion. We cannot control what they do.

"We have incredible numbers after what we've done after last season. These are numbers to be champion. All we can do is be there until the end."

On Monday, Gabriel Jesus gave City the lead after 10 minutes at the Etihad Stadium as he converted Leroy Sane's square pass from close range.

Willy Boly was sent off for a challenge on Bernardo Silva nine minutes later, and City had doubled their lead before the break when Jesus struck from the penalty spot after Ryan Bennett fouled Raheem Sterling.

The win was sealed in the second half when Conor Coady diverted Kevin De Bruyne's cross into his own net.

Simon Bajkowski of the Manchester Evening News felt the win was reminiscent of City's performances last season as they strolled to the title:

They're facing much sterner opposition this time around, but if they can keep putting pressure on Liverpool by continuing to pick up three points each week, that will likely reduce the gap at some point, as the Reds aren't realistically going to win every match remaining this season.

As City found out themselves in December, things can change quickly with one or two shock results. Should Liverpool slip up, they need to be close enough to take advantage.