MANCHESTER -- Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City will need to fight until the final game of the season to secure a top-four finish and Champions League football for next season.
Fourth-placed City opened up a seven-point gap over Arsenal and Manchester United with a 3-1 victory over Hull City at the Etihad on Saturday.
But both their rivals have two games in hand and Guardiola believes it will be a four-way fight -- along with Liverpool -- for the two spots behind Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.
"[It is] not a big gap," he told a news conference. "I am pretty sure it is going to happen until the end.
"We are going to fight against United and Arsenal and Liverpool to qualify in the third and fourth position, you have to know that.
"After our defeat in Monaco, [we faced] Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, we spoke about that. We were not able to take enough points despite our performances, which were quite good."
City ended a run of four Premier League games without a win against Hull and were gifted the opener from Ahmed Elmohamady's own goal.
But Guardiola was delighted with the second -- a brilliant team goal that saw every player touch the ball before Sergio Aguero finished Raheem Sterling's well effort trickled past Claudio Bravo, who was making his first Premier League start since Jan. 21.
"Maybe the second goal is the big example of what we would like to be, like a team," Guardiola said.
"The Hull City goal is a big example of what we were this season. How we defend the goal from Hull City is what happened this season in our box. It is not about the quality it's about the mentality to defend and we were not good.
"Of course the second goal is what we would like. Okay we won the game and a four games without winning it was so important."
Ranocchia's goal means that Bravo has now been beaten by the last seven shots on target he has faced in the Premier League going back to a 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur and 4-0 defeat to Everton in January.
But Guardiola was happy with ability to start attacks from the back and says he showed he is one of the best in the world.
"I will decide game-by-game [who plays] and today I decided [on Bravo]," the City boss added. "With our build-up, Claudio is the best goalkeeper in the world with Ter Stegen and Manuel Neuer -- the best goalkeepers in the build-up and with the feet.
"He helped us a lot to create good build-up and possession in the middle."
