Pep Guardiola seemed to give up on the Premier League title race after Manchester City's defeat by Manchester United.
The champions were beaten 2-1 on home soil in the Manchester derby and fell 14 points behind runaway leaders Liverpool.
And that led to some strange post-match comments from Guardiola when he appeared to admit that Jurgen Klopp's side were too far gone.
Asked about the gap to Liverpool, Guardiola said: "It's not time to think about that. Whether it's six, seven, eight or nine points, I say the same every time. We think about what we have to do and we think about the next game.
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"It's unrealistic to think about catching up, whether it's six points, seven points, 14 points, two points. We are a fantastic team, we can play so good."
First-half goals from Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial condemned Manchester City to defeat in the derby on Saturday night.
Guardiola admitted his team were undone by a brilliant counter-attacking game plan from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side.
He said: "We couldn't control those situations today because of the quality United have. Of course we can improve, but they have quality.
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"Sometimes we can control it. Sometimes we struggle."
Liverpool, meanwhile, won 3-0 at Bournemouth to continue their relentless form to make it 15 wins and one draw from 16 games.
They moved 11 points clear of second-placed Leicester with Brendan Rodgers' side set to play Aston Villa with their game in hand on Sunday.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Manchester City, Liverpool, Premier League