Guardiola says the Premier League will be out of City’s hands after the draw

Manchester City Coach Pep Guardiola praised his side’s determination after the dramatic 3-3 draw. EvertonBut they know they face an uphill battle Premier League The title race.

City are five points behind in the draw Arsenal And there is a game at hand.

“It depends. It (the title) is not in our hands. It was there before that match, and so was Arsenal. But now it’s in our hands, no,” Guardiola said.

City next play at home to Brentford — who are seventh and still fighting for a place in next season’s European competition — before Arsenal travel to London rivals West Ham on Saturday.

“We have four games in the Premier League, the next one is Brentford, and it will be more of the same, because the competitors are good and we will see what happens,” Guardiola said. “Of course (we go into those games with confidence), like we came here.”

City were in control when they went 1-0 up at half-time after Jeremy Doku’s opening goal on a dramatic night.

Everton, though, hit back with three goals in the space of 14 minutes — substitute Thierno Barry netting a brace either side of a Jake O’Brien header. Barry’s first goal came courtesy of a poor back pass by City defender Mark Guihy.

After going 3-1 down, Erling Haaland reacted quickly as Doku grabbed the points with a superb stoppage-time equaliser, before City hit back.

“Really good performance. We played outstanding in the first half. It was very difficult with their physicality,” Guardiola told Sky Sports. “In the second half, maybe we weren’t as much in control and after we conceded the goal, they came back and produced a proper English game, so aggressive in the double play, but overall we had a really good performance.”

The City boss added: “It’s better than losing, (but of course it’s) better to win and we played for it. It just shows what the team is.”

Everton boss David Moyes said at half-time that his side had let themselves down due to some poor defending, particularly Haaland’s second City goal.

“But at half-time, we could have taken this result because we were brilliantly beaten in the first half,” Moyes said. “I wanted us to get closer to Manchester City. We couldn’t get to them, they played really well.

“But we were nowhere near what we did. It was probably the poorest we’ve played here, certainly against better teams this season.

“So the players made a great effort to bring us into the game and when we got to 3-1 we should have tried hard enough to see it through, but we didn’t.

“It’s not a bad result to get a point against City, but when you’re 3-1 up you think you have a great chance of winning.”

Data from PA was used in this report.