Pep Guardiola has new Manchester City excuse after defeat hands Liverpool title initiative

Pep Guardiola bizarrely claimed that one of the reasons Manchester City struggled against Bournemouth was that he was forced to field a team with 'a lot of players' who were lacking match sharpness.

City was beaten 2-1 by Bournemouth to fall two points behind Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table after the Reds came from behind to beat another South Coast club, Brighton, at Anfield.

Reported Liverpool transfer target Milos Kerkez assisted Antoine Semenyo and Evanilson either side of half-time for Bournemouth to take a two-goal lead against City. Josko Gvardiol scored late on for the visiting team but Guardiola's men could not find an equalizer.

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Guardiola had bemoaned City's injury situation after the Blues' loss to Tottenham in the last 16 of the Carabao Cup this week, claiming he had just 13 first-team players to choose from. However, the Catalan named a starting line-up against Bournemouth that was packed with Premier League winners, plus Kevin De Bruyne, Jeremy Doku, Savinho and Rico Lewis among the substitutes.

Of City's starters against Bournemouth, only Kyle Walker and Nathan Ake have had notable spells on the sidelines in recent weeks, but Guardiola said: "We have few players with a lot of minutes and a lot of players with no minutes so the balance is a bit uncomfortable."

However, irrespective of City's injury plight, Guardiola accepted that his team deserved to lose. "We played good against Spurs but today we could not handle their intensity that they had and that's why we lost the game. We knew we couldn't match the intensity. We have talked about it. It was an open game. We had chances at the end but I congratulate Bournemouth for the victory.

"The 50-50 balls in the middle, the duels, they play this type of game. They are so aggressive. They had six-seven days to prepare. They have physicality and speed, but you have to win these types of situations. And they had chances. Ederson made a good save. We had real good moments at the start of the second half and after that it was difficult to swallow as we were good. After we scored we had momentum and chances but couldn't score [again]."