Pep Guardiola has admitted that the gap between Manchester City and Chelsea is "huge", but has not given up hope of catching the Premier League leaders.
Man City's title hopes suffered another setback on New Year's Eve when they were beaten 1-0 by Liverpool, a result which puts them 10 points behind the Blues.
"When you win 12 or 13 games in a row, to drop points is not easy," Guardiola told Sky Sports News. "The gap is huge because they deserve to be there. When they don't lose it is like this.
"But we are in the Champions League and league [contention]. After that defeat on the last day of the year the conclusion is, always, 'could be better' but the way they are training, I am glad to work with these guys.
"Tomorrow we try it again, we start the second leg. We have due respect for the other clubs but we have to focus on ourselves and think about the next one and try to do what we need to do to win the games."
Man City play host to Burnley on Monday.
Giuseppe Labellarte
