Premier League title race out of Manchester City's hands after Everton draw: Guardiola

Pep Guardiola said Manchester City's 3-3 draw with Everton left the title race out of their hands as he conceded that the advantage is now with Arsenal.

In Short

• Jeremy Doku's late strike rescued City after Everton threatened a damaging defeat
• City's second-half errors handed Everton momentum
• City trail Arsenal by 5 points with a game in hand

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted that the Premier League title race is out of their hands following their 3-3 draw against Everton on Monday, May 4. City need a last-gasp equaliser from Jeremy Doku to avoid getting beaten on the night as they had the chance to go level with Arsenal had they won their clash with Everton and the match against Brentford on Saturday.

It was Doku who gave the visitors the lead in the 43rd minute before City capitulated in the second half of the game with some costly mistakes. They gave Everton the chance to get back into the contest as a costly error from Marc Guehi allowed Thierno Barry to get the equaliser.

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Jack O'Brien then gave the home side the lead before Barry got his second of the night. City pulled one back through Erling Haaland, before Doku got the equaliser with a thunderous strike, to get the City fans back into the stadium after they started making their exits early.

Speaking after the match, as quoted by Reuters, Guardiola said that he expects City's remaining four games to be similar to the Everton test.

"It's now not in our hands, before it was, now no," Guardiola said.

"Four games we have (remaining) in the Premier League. They will be quite similar and we'll see what happens."

City are five points behind Arsenal, albeit with a game in hand, but will now have to hope that Arsenal slip up in their remaining three matches, which appear to be easier on paper. The Gunners face relegation-threatened West Ham, already-relegated Burnley and Crystal Palace in the final stretch.

Guardiola said that the point gained was better than a loss in the end.

"It's better than losing," he said. "We'd rather win. We play for that and we just showed what a team we are. We tried everything. The players were aggressive."

City will be facing Brentford, Palace, Bournemouth and Aston Villa in their final four games and have a FA Cup final with Chelsea to play before the end of the season.

Doku rallied his side and refused to throw in the towel just yet, saying that they will fight till the end.

"It's painful now but there's still a lot of games to go and anything can happen," Doku said. "We'll keep on fighting. We owe it to ourselves and our fans."

City will take on Brentford at home on May 9.

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