Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola admitted there is a significant gap between his side and Liverpool.
City managed a 4-0 win over Watford to go 15 points behind the Reds, who are Premier League champions.
Guardiola was happy with the result, but admits it is a big gap to bridge next season if his team wants to win the league again.
"It was the minimum [result after losing the FA Cup semi final]," he told reporters.
"It was important that we came off the pitch thinking we'd done everything to try to win the game. Of course, we are here to try to win, but we can always lose. You have to run and you have to fight. In the first half against Arsenal, that didn't happen and that's why we lost.
"It's important for Raheem to score goals but we cannot forget that we finished a long way off the champions. This is not good for us.
"Of course, we've been much better than the other 18 teams. The distance from second to first is big and the distance between second and third is big too, but it's not enough. The personal achievements must always be related to the achievements of the team, which has not been perfect.
"Against Southampton, we created a lot of chances and we lost. The most important thing is to finish games with the sense that we've done everything.
"We all still need to know that we're far away from Liverpool. This was the first time we've managed to win four in a row in the Premier League. Two seasons ago, we managed 18, last season we managed 14.
"This shows how poor consistency has been this season because we've had the same team. This happened because something was wrong, and I need to discover what it was ahead of next season."
