Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola believes all of the top five can still win the Premier League title this season.
Liverpool’s recent wobbles have blown the title race wide open, with City lurking just three points behind and Tottenham a further two back.
It’s generally believed to be a three-horse race, however Guardiola suggests that Chelsea and Manchester United also remain in the hunt.
“I never said Tottenham was not there, nor Chelsea,” Guardiola said on Tuesday. “I never put out all five-six teams, and United is making this run of victories every single week, they’ll be there to fight for the Premier League.
“If Chelsea is able to do games in a row, games in row, they’ll be contenders too to win the Premier League, so everybody is there. The gap is not too big.
“With 39 points to play for, when you are nine, ten points behind, it’s not too much. Seeing what’s happening right now in the Premier League, everybody is ready to take points.”
United are 14 points adrift of Liverpool after winning seven of their last eight league games under interim boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The club were scarcely considering Champions League qualification towards the end of Jose Mourinho’s tenure, with 11 points separating them from the top four when Solskjaer took over.
City are the bookmaker’s new favourites to win the title after Liverpool stumbled to back-to-back draws against Leicester and West Ham.
Despite losing to Newcastle last week, Guardiola’s side could go top with victory at Everton tonight.
“Three, four days ago we were already done,” Guardiola said.
“The champion was Liverpool and now we are the favourite and maybe in three days we are leading or we are seven points behind.”
“We try to be calm in this situation. There will be a lot of surprises and it will be tough for every team to win all games because the contenders and non-contenders and all the teams have the abilities, capacity and skills to create problems.”