Pep Guardiola insists Manchester City could still slip up and lose title to Manchester United

Guardiola was adamant that City could yet let their 13-point lead slip at the top of the table with six games to go

Pep Guardiola saw his side defeated by Manchester United last weekend (Getty)

Pep Guardiola has insisted that Manchester City could still throw away their 13-point lead at the top of the Premier League table and hand the title to Manchester United.

Having missed out on the chance to be crowned champions in last weekend’s Manchester derby, City need two wins to secure the title and will hope to collect three of the six points they require against Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley on Saturday.

However, if City lose away to Tottenham, as they did last season, United will have the chance to close the gap to seven points. Jose Mourinho’s men play bottom club West Bromwich Albion on Sunday before a trip to Bournemouth on Wednesday night.

Mourinho ruled his side out of the title race more than two months ago but Guardiola expects United to win all of their six remaining games and, after seeing his players succumb to their three consecutive defeats in the last fortnight, he stressed that City could still collapse.

“Of course it can happen, I assure you. Real Madrid, years ago, lost six games in a row and didn't win the league”, he said recalling La Liga’s 2003-04 title race, when Rafael Benitez’s Valencia capitalised on a late collapse by Carlos Quieroz’s Madrid.

“One year ago, never before, in the NBA finals one team recovered from 3-1 down. [Cleveland] Cavaliers won against Golden State Warriors 4-3. They won three games in a row, so in sports, it can always happen.”

Guardiola admitted he is “not the most calm” after last week’s 3-2 defeat against United, but he is confident that his players know what they must do to win the fifth top-flight league title of City’s 123-year history.

“Football is full of emotions but what we have to try to do is focus and win our games against Tottenham, Swansea and after that the other ones. So we know that,” he said.

“I am not the most calm, because that is not the right word, because we were so close against United at home, but it's the fact that since November or December we are already champions.

“When I saw the pundits and the people in November, they say it's already done, it's impossible that City, if they don't lose in six months, three or four months, it's impossible for them to drop points. But in one week we lost three games. That happened.”

Guardiola added: “What I say to the players is - and they show you every day, in every game - that it's not done, because if it was done they wouldn't play the way they play. So we have to play tomorrow and after that we see the result from United.

“But it doesn't depend on the United result, it's in our hands, it's up to us to win our games, and we are able to win two games. We handled the pressure, all the good, the bad situations, the whole season.”

If City are to pick up the first of the two victories they need on Saturday, they will have to do so without the club’s all-time leading goalscorer Sergio Aguero.

Aguero returned from a month-long layoff with a knee injury last weekend but has been ruled out for an indefinite period of time after suffering a setback.

The Argentine was unable to train in the build-up to Tuesday’s Champions League defeat against Liverpool and, though he appeared as a second-half substitute, he complained of soreness after the final whistle.

Guardiola is unsure when Aguero will able to return and though he denied on Friday that Ashley Young’s robust challenge on the 29-year-old in the derby was the reason for the setback, he claimed it had not helped Aguero’s recovery.

“I didn't say it is the reason why he was not good. I think it influenced a little bit the situation now, because the image speaks for itself,” he said of Young’s tackle.

“It's not the reason. I'm saying that after that situation, of course it did not help. [Aguero’s knee] was good and after that, the days after, it was not good. But I'm not a doctor, l'm saying what the doctor says to me.”