Guardiola 'more than happy' with performance | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola reiterated there is a lot of hard work ahead for City in the coming months if the title is to be retained.

The champions were held to a draw against Southampton for the second time this season and move 11 points clear of Liverpool, who have two games in hand.

Guardiola has continually said his team’s lead at the top means nothing at this stage of the campaign and he was again asked if dropping points against the Saints meant the title race was still open?

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“I don't need a good result, even today if we had won the game (to know) the title race will not be over,” said Pep.

“In January no one is champions. There are many games, many tough games like today and that’s all.

“Today we played to play good and defend our badge and our people as best as possible and the title will always be a consequence of what we have done.

“Today was really good.”

When asked  by a journalist 'what had gone wrong against the Saints', Pep, who reached the landmark of 500 Premier League points faster than any other manager had done before with today's draw, said he was more than happy with the performance as a whole

“Absolutely I disagree,” he said.

“We played really well - maybe for 10 or 15 minutes we were not aggressive enough, but the last 20  minutes was excellent and the second half was excellent, too.

“We made an excellent performance for 90 minutes against a top side.

“It is always so tough to play against them as they have experience in many, many things but we made an exceptional performance.

"Unfortunately, in the first half we conceded a goal, but I think this was one of our best performances of the season, by far.

"They were incredibly organised and this is one of the best performances we played against them.

“Yes, the result was not good, but in terms of performance and the way we played, it was excellent.

"We played better than in the Arsenal game, when we won, and today we drew.

“Sometimes you deserve it and you don't win, but the way we played here was excellent."