'We tried' - Gloomy Pep Guardiola admits it's a 'season to suffer' as Man City slip up yet again in Crystal Palace draw

It's back to square one for City after any hopes they'd turned a corner by beating Nottingham Forest were dashed with a 2-2 draw against Palace on Saturday. The struggling champions came from behind twice to rescue a point from Selhurst Park in another unconvincing display from Guardiola's side.

The result leaves City eight points behind Liverpool in the standings, having played one more game than the league leaders. At this point of the season, it's hard for Guardiola to even think about a title race as he battles injuries, inconsistency and a lack of confidence among his squad.

"We take a point. We fought incredible and came back twice," Guardiola told BBC Sport. "It's a season to suffer. We'll see what happens in the last month. We tried. Big compliment for the opponent.

"We cannot talk about the title race when we lose four games in a row and draw. We'll try to recover players. We'll see in the last month.

"We have to do more games to be consistent. It's difficult in the situation we have. I'm really pleased for the players - they fought and did everything."

Guardiola has to pick his side up for Wednesday's game against Juventus in the Champions League. City, 17th in the league phase, have work to do to finish in the top eight after poor results against Sporting CP and Feyenoord.