Pep Guardiola all but surrendered Manchester City’s hopes of winning the Premier League title after his worst afternoon as a manager.
Guardiola claimed Chelsea’s 10-point advantage looks insurmountable after a crushing defeat at Goodison Park.
Sunday’s thumping was Pep’s worst domestic result as a boss and he blamed a failure to make their first-half dominance count rather than defensive mishap.
Asked if their title challenge was over, Guardiola said:
‘The first one [position], yeah. The first one is a 10-point gap and that is a lot of course. The second one is three points, so we have to see.
‘The consistency in clean sheets depends on how we create in front. It would be a huge mistake to blame everything on one person, but of course this is the first time I’ve conceded a lot of goals.
‘It’s never happened before. That’s why I have to know the reason why. I spoke with the players for the last three weeks to forget about the table. Focus on the next game and do our best.
‘I want us to get better and better and feel we are able to score goals. When that happens we are going to suffer less behind. Our strikers will have more confidence.’
City have now lost four of their last eight Premier League games to fall way behind Antonio Conte’s Chelsea and Guardiola admitted he is at a loss why their form is on the slide and suggested sweeping changes could be made next summer.
“I had eight years as a coach and won seven titles,’ he added.
‘That is an exceptional situation. [But] that is not a good argument for our people and I have to look forward for the best solution for our players to win again.
‘At the end of the season, we’ll analyse how our level was, our performance, the coach, the players. After we are going to decide.’