Pep Guardiola's message to Man City players after falling 14 points behind Liverpool

Manchester City were beaten 2-1 by rivals Manchester United on Saturday, leaving the champions a staggering 14 points behind Premier League title favourites Liverpool

Pep Guardiola told his Manchester City players to lift their heads and keep fighting after they fell 14 points behind Liverpool in the title race.

The champions were beaten 2-1 by rivals Manchester City on Saturday - their fourth defeat of the season - as unbeaten Liverpool thumped Bournemouth 3-0 at the Vitality Stadium.

After 16 games Guardiola's men are third in the table; six points behind Leicester City in second and 14 behind title favourites Liverpool.

City will likely need to go unbeaten from here on if they stand any chance of catching Liverpool from now until May, but according to Rodri, Guardiola has encouraged his players to stay positive.

The Manchester City summer signing said of his boss Guardiola: "He tried to lift our heads up. It is a tough moment for the team, but we have to keep fighting.

"We have other cups, other goals which are interesting and very good, so we need to keep fighting and of course recover people because we have lots of problems with injuries – it's been tough at the beginning of the season."

On whether Manchester City can catch Liverpool, Rodri added:"It's too much, I don't know.

"I would tell the supporters to stay behind us because we have other things this year, other cups. It's difficult but we have to fight until the end.

"The fans are amazing but have to keep supporting us because they are important.

"We don't want to talk about that [the gap], or look at the table. We have lots of other good things this year, other cups, and we still have the Premier League, of course.

"We have to keep fighting until the end. Of course, they [Liverpool] are very strong. Now it is difficult but we have to keep trying.

"We will give everything in the Premier League but things are not going as we want.

"We have had lots of injuries since the start of the season, we have had many rigorous decisions of course in matches, and it's always difficult.

"The Premier League is like this – physically and mentally we have to get the team back because we are a bit down now."