Phil Foden believes that Manchester City's defence of their Premier League title is over after their late capitulation against Brentford on Tuesday. 

Foden scored twice to put the Citizens 2-0 up at the Gtech Community Stadium, but goals from Yoane Wissa and Christian Norgaard late on sealed a share of the spoils. 

City have now dropped 14 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season, their highest ever total in a league campaign under Pep Guardiola (previously 13 in 2020-21 & 2022-23).

Tuesday's draw also saw the defending champions fail to win a top-flight game in which they led by two or more goals for the first time since a 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace in December 2023, having won 22 consecutive such matches prior to tonight.

Guardiola's side are sixth in the Premier League table, 12 points behind leaders Liverpool, who also have a game in hand, and Foden believes that gap is too big to make up. 

"The title? Yeah, yeah, it's done for sure, it's done," Foden responded when asked about his team's standing by Eurosport.

"We're not stupid. So we've got to aim for the top four. That's the next target now and then, obviously the Champions League as well. So it's not as if the season has gone.

"We've got to be realistic, haven't we? The performances have not been good enough to get up there.

"The top four is our aim now and then, to see where we can be in the other trophies. We can't dwell on it. We've got to try and aim for the top four now and make things right."

City's poor run started with a 2-1 defeat to Tottenham in the EFL Cup back in October, with the Citizens winning just one of their next 10 games across all competitions. 

Guardiola's side have since gone unbeaten in their first three games of the new year, but their displays have not been convincing enough to put them back in the title conversation. 

Foden, however, added that he was not accustomed to being out of the title race at this stage, having been in contention in all but one of his seasons as a City player. 

"I've not been in this situation before where I've lost this many games and been in this situation," he said.

"So it's a learning curve, and it's just about how you get back to your best, not just me, but the team as well. And how we come back from this.

"I believe, I still believe in the team, you know, I still believe we can do good things.

"It's about getting back on the training pitch and having that belief, to keep going, don't give up.

"We've been the best in the last few seasons and when we face an opponent we can just see how much they're up for it.

"And we have to try and match that, if not better it, and we're coming up a little bit short at the moment."