Manchester City staged an exhilarating fightback from two goals down to keep the destiny of the Premier League title in their hands, yet Riyad Mahrez's late penalty miss constrained the leaders to settle for an emotional 2-2 draw at West Ham on Sunday.
Kick Guardiola's side were at risk for giving second-put Liverpool a title life saver after West Ham's Jarrod Bowen struck two times in the first half.
However, City's stirring recuperation showed the person that has proactively acquired them three titles the last four seasons.
Jack Grealish got one back soon after the interval and Vladimir Coufal's own goal finished City's escape act.
It should have been shockingly better for City, yet Mahrez's penalty was saved by Lukasz Fabianski with five minutes left.
While that was an unpleasant disaster for Guardiola, who stood ashen-looked on the touchline, in the circumstances City will be feeling significantly better to have moved four points clear of Liverpool with a goal contrast seven better than their rivals.
They will hold the title assuming that Jurgen Klopp's side lose their game close by at Southampton on Tuesday.
Assuming that Liverpool beat Southampton to close the hole to one point, Guardiola's men can still secure the prize with a triumph against Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium on 22 May.
A title race for the ages could well go down to the last day of the season, when Liverpool host Wolves, as it did when City pipped the Reds to first place in 2019.
Guardiola said this week he wants players with a "special mindset" as he looks to bolster his squad for next season, personalities who, similar to him, awaken consistently obsessed with winning.
City's captivating restoration to stretch out their unbeaten association hurry to 11 matches showed Guardiola as of now has a lot of fighters in his squad, in spite of the fact that he probably won't put Mahrez on penalty duties again for some time.
Aymeric Laporte and Fernandinho were passed fit to start in City's defense in the wake of suffering injuries in Wednesday's success at Wolves.
Yet, City were at that point without harmed defenders Ruben Dias, John Stones and Kyle Walker and they didn't look agreeable at the back from the initial moments.
ON A KNIFE EDGE
Craig Dawson got behind Oleksandr Zinchenko to meet Pablo Fornals' cross, yet with the goal under his control, the West Ham defender headed over.
That early danger seemed to fluster City, who controlled possession however found it hard to make clear chances with West Ham glad to guard profound and strike on the counter.
Just as City looked set to turn the screw, they were hit with a sucker punch in the 24th moment.
Fornals' opportunistic pass discovered Laporte and Zinchenko attempting to play offside and Bowen nipped in behind, adjusting Ederson prior to slotting home from a tight point.
Albeit West Ham didn't have anything to play for, they had proactively beaten Liverpool and Chelsea at home and this was no easy ride for City as David Moyes' approach exposed the flaws in the leaders' obligation to full scale assault.
City's soft focus was exposed again on the stroke of halftime.
Fabianski's long kick was going on and Michail Antonio cut his pass past Zinchenko, liberating Bowen to sprint clear and shoot low past Ederson.
Desperately requiring a fast response after the break, Grealish gave City a help in the 49th moment.
Rodri's flick arrived at Grealish and his shot skipped into the ground, going through Dawson's legs and past some unacceptable footed Fabianski.
That was the signal for City to lay seige toward the West Ham goal.
Fabianski saved Jesus' drive with his legs, then kept out Bernardo Silva's volley.
City's relentless pressure was compensated in the 69th moment when Mahrez's free-kick was going into his own net by the jumping Coufal.
The show wasn't finished and City were granted a 85th-minute penalty after a VAR audit of Dawson's excursion on Jesus.
Mahrez stepped up with an opportunity to almost seal the title, yet Fabianski plunged to one side to make a save that kept the title race on a blade edge.
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