Leicester City vs Manchester City: Pep Guardiola admits Liverpool and Tottenham are better than City

Goals from Marc Albrighton and Ricardo Pereira cancelled out Bernardo Silva's opener and sent City tumbling to third in the Premier League table

Pep Guardiola admitted Liverpool and Tottenham are better than his Manchester City team after the champions slipped to a second-successive Premier League defeat.

Goals from Marc Albrighton and Ricardo Pereira cancelled out Bernardo Silva’s opener and sent City tumbling to third in the Premier League table some six points off leaders Liverpool.

The result comes fresh off the back of the stunning defeat Crystal Palace on Saturday and leaves Guardiola with his biggest challenge of the season to date – to catch not one but two teams in the title race.

“We had a lack of power to create more chances. We have to try to find the solutions,” he said afterwards. “Fernandinho is not able to play, he is injured, we have to overcome it. Ilkay Gundogan was good with the ball, he played good.

“Liverpool and Tottenham deserve it, they win games and we don’t, the gap is increased. Last season we had a big gap, this season Liverpool and Tottenham are very good.

“We have finished the first half of the season, we have enough points to be champions but the other teams make more, they are better than us at the moment.

“Football is fascinating, unpredictable. People say what we did last season was easy, it was very difficult.”

Albrighton, scorer of the first goal, was pleased to add a second scalp of the festive period after the Foxes saw off Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Guardiola has watched his side suffer back-to-back defeats (AFP/Getty Images) (AFP)

“It was hard work out there. We rode our luck at times but once we scored we more than deserved at least a point,” he said.

“A big trait of ours is that we don’t know when we are beaten. We were under the cosh but came back into it. We’ve had a good week, we are brimming with confidence but we can’t get complacent. It’s Cardiff next.”