PEP LOST IN FOREST

Lacklustre City give up ground in the title race as Pereira's battlers dig deep for a point

- BY ANDY DUNN

AS soon as Elliot Anderson's sweet strike hit the back of the net, Pep Guardiola dashed to study a monitor next to his bucket seat.

What he watched was a replay of Manchester City’s Premier League title hopes suffering a significant setback.

There has long been a suspicion that City have been keeping this Premier League race alive without being anything like the best version of themselves. And this was confirmation. Guardiola knew it. City just lacked a spark.

There has been a lot of talk about how attractive or unattractive Premier League football has become. You could never put City in the unattractive bracket but you could occasionally put them in the predictable bracket.