Pep Guardiola admits Manchester City could not match Liverpool's "passion" this season.
City's loss to Chelsea on Thursday meant Liverpool were crowned Premier League champions after missing out by a point to Guardiola's side last season.
Speaking after the game, Guardiola said about his rivals: "We won eight titles in a row which had never happened before in this country.
"It can happen to miss one. We lost Vincent Kompany to Anderlecht and had Aymeric Laporte injured.
"After we won those titles maybe we didn't have the same passion as Liverpool.
"After two seasons the gap is big. We were not consistent like the previous seasons. Liverpool won the Champions League and were given confidence. They played every game like it was their last game. In the beginning, we didn't play like that way.
"Congratulations to Liverpool for this great season. We still have five or six weeks to play but we won a lot in the last few years and of course we want to close the gap.
"We cannot forget we are still second in the league so we are better than a lot of the teams."
