MANCHESTER City manager Pep Guardiola has insisted that his side put in one of their “best performances of the season, by far,” in the 1-1 draw at Saints.

The Premier League champions came to St Mary’s on the back of a 12-match winning run and with an 11 point lead on second-place Liverpool at the table’s summit.

However, they found themselves a goal behind to Kyle Walker-Peters inside seven minutes and could only muster enough to rescue a point.

Either side had chances to win, although City looked the team most likely to take all three points as the time remaining wound down.

Despite dropping two points against Saints for a second time this campaign, Guardiola could not be more pleased with his side’s showing.

“Outstanding game,” he told Sky Sports. “Excellent performance, we made one of the best performances of the season. By far.”

Asked what he liked, he responded: “Everything, against a team that are defending well, set up a base for the counter, really well organised.

“We suffer all the time and today was one of the best performances we have played against them.”

When a journalist later suggested that it was not the ideal City performance, he added: “I disagree with you absolutely.

"We played really well. Maybe 15 to 20 minutes we were maybe not aggressive enough but the last 20 to 25 minutes we were excellent and the second half was excellent.

"We made an excellent performance over 90 minutes against a top side. They have experience and many things but we made an exceptional performance."

City ended the match with 74% of the total possession and unleashed 20 shots, in their efforts to find a winner.