With this result plus Arsenal defeating Everton 2-0, Man City is 9 points behind their opponent in the race for the championship (Arsenal has played one more match). Man City still has one match to play against Arsenal and will host them at the Etihad stadium next April, so Guardiola - Man City still have a chance.
When asked about whether the championship race is over, Guardiola said: "It's not over yet. We will continue to chase them. Everything is difficult but we have one more match on the field with Arsenal. I'm not saying it will be easy to beat them, but the team still has hope. Man City always has to try their best.
The 9-point gap with Arsenal is a big gap, but we have to try to the end. If we can't, we will congratulate them as champions, but first of all we have to continue to strive.
Man City's season is at risk of ending in failure, because a few days ago they just lost to Real Madrid 0-3 in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16.
Guardiola believes that part of the reason is that his team has not taken advantage of enough opportunities, including striker Erling Haaland, who has only scored three goals in the last 12 matches in the Premier League.
Erling Haaland knew we needed his goals. We also needed to create more chances for him, but he had three to four good chances right at the beginning of the first half without scoring.
But he will return. Erling Haaland will regain his form and may score soon. We are a great team, playing well with players playing their best. We did not score enough goals despite having many chances and West Ham punished us.
To win the Premier League, you need to play more stably. Previously, we had stability to win consecutively, always finding ways to win. We always find ways to win all 3 points in matches like this.
But this season, not scoring goals despite creating many chances has cost us. We have not scored enough goals. This has happened billions of times with this team in the past decade, but this season we are really having difficulties," Guardiola emphasized.
Guardiola abandoned the Premier League title race, but even though Haaland and Man City may return to their former peak form, in the current situation, the time for them to reverse the situation in the title race with Arsenal is almost gone.
In the immediate future, Man City will have the second leg match against Real Madrid at Etihad Stadium in the UEFA Champions League, in the context that their risk of being eliminated is very high.
