THE FUSE

Despite the precarious position, Guardiola was adamant when asked if the race was run. "It's not over. Who said that? We didn't lose. We will continue," he said. "Nine points is a lot against Arsenal but it happened. We have the game at home so we have to try until the end. When it is not possible then we congratulate the champion but we have to try." The manager was quick to defend the character of his dressing room during this difficult period. "We have an incredible team, spirit. We had an incredible amount of effort in Madrid. The last two games, we played much, much better," Guardiola said. "We are an incredible team. We play so good. The guys go and go until we can't continue. But we didn't score enough goals when we had the quality and they punished us."