"Of course I care!" - Guardiola explains post-match suggestion City's title defense is over

Pep Guardiola appeared to suggest Manchester City 'can't win' the Premier League title this season, but later explained he was just focusing on the team's performance at the moment.

City remain five points behind leaders Arsenal after losing 2-1 to Manchester United in a dramatic derby on Saturday.

The defeat followed City's EFL Cup exit from Southampton in midweek, after which Guardiola stressed the need for his team to 'recover who you are'.

"The last thing I worry about are titles, that sort of thing," he said before facing United, and Guardiola seemingly accepted defeat in City's pursuit of Arsenal after the game.

"I don't care about the Premier League and the Carabao Cup," he told BT Sport. “We cannot win. We won a lot, so that's not a problem."

But the Catalan manager was asked about the comments during his press conference and admitted he still cares about the Premier League title.

"Come on, of course I care who wins the Premier League," he replied. "But right now, after Southampton, if we don't win, we don't win.

"We are not going to win everything in the next 25 years. We are fighting, because we saw today that we are going to fight and play to win, but sometimes football is like that. You don't win.

"The manager, Erik [ten Hag], or people say how good [United] are, and they deserve it, of course. Everyone has their point of view.

"We want to try, but number one behaves that way. Afterwards, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. What I know is that we have to do better and better all the time to win in this league.

"We lost the Carabao Cup three days ago; we lost it. But it's not about losing the Carabao Cup, it's how we lose the game. That's why I was sad, really, really sad."

Arsenal will be eight points clear of the champions if they beat Tottenham on Sunday, while United are now just a point behind their third-placed rivals.