Pep Guardiola blames the grass as the reason for Crystal Palace draw on Monday night

Pep Guardiola lamented the “not perfect” grass at Selhurst Park after Manchester City’s title hopes were shattered by a goalless draw with Crystal Palace on Monday, but the Spaniard said he had no regrets about his team selection or tactics.

Patrick Vieira’s Eagles held the Citizens to a 0-0 draw, and the Citizens were unhappy throughout as they failed to register a single shot on target in the second half while playing the full 90 minutes without a change.

Despite the fact that City have extended their advantage at the top of the Premier League to four points, they have played one more game than Liverpool, with the pair yet to meet this season – Pep Guardiola assessed his side’s efforts in a positive light, save from a dig at the turf.

“There are still a lot of games to play, and we have to win a lot of games,” Guardiola told Sky Sports. “But the way we played, there are no regrets about the team.”

“Of course, we would have wanted to win, but the game was well-played.”

“We played to win the game, we created more, and the manner we played in a difficult venue with imperfect grass was outstanding.”

Guardiola is upbeat about his chances

The Spaniard told BBC Sport that he was confident in his team’s performance and that he saw no reason to change any of the players because they were all doing their jobs effectively.

He went on to say, “We play a really terrific game.” “We made a few mistakes in 90 minutes, but the manner we played was pretty good.”

“In football, there is no such thing as luck. We needed to score goals, but we failed to do so. We wanted to score as many goals as possible while allowing as few as possible to be conceded. We had some difficulties.

“I didn’t make any changes since the men that were playing were doing well.” We didn’t score, and that was our error. The crew that was there today was present previously and will be present again in the upcoming game. I’m really happy with how we played and how we performed.”