Pep Guardiola admitted the thought of losing more ground on Liverpool played on his mind as Manchester City dug deep to claim a 3-1 win at Everton.
The reigning champions headed into Saturday’s Premier League clash at Goodison Park eight points behind Liverpool, who beat Sheffield United 1-0 in the day’s early kick-off.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin cancelled out Gabriel Jesus’ opener before half-time, but Riyad Mahrez caught out Jordan Pickford from a free-kick 71 minutes in and Raheem Sterling made sure of the points.
With the gap at the top back to five points after seven matches, Guardiola acknowledged the pressure is on his side to keep pace with last term’s runners-up.
“We knew Liverpool won again and the gap was eight points, so big,” Guardiola said at his post-match news conference.
“So, we won three points and it’s five [points] in September, with a lot of points to play for.
“We know which team we’re playing right now – they are seven victories in a row, champions of Europe and playing good football.
“This is our rival and we know we can’t drop too many points because last season they lost just one game.
“The season is long, we have to keep going and be there, maybe we can push them a little bit more and try to make the third Premier League in a row.”
