Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City must win all of their remaining games to be able to beat Arsenal to the Premier League title this season.
City are back at the highest of the Premier League for the primary time since August following a 1-0 win away to Burnley on Wednesday night.
City and Arsenal are level on 70 points and a goal difference of 37 but Guardiola’s side are in top spot due to their 66 goals scored, compared to the 63 scored by Mikel Arteta’s men.
‘Now we now have the FA Cup and after that we now have five games. The one likelihood for the title is to win all of the games,’ Guardiola said.
‘It was such a demanding game on Sunday [against Arsenal]. It is just not easy after three days but within the Premier League you could have to regulate. We’re used to doing it. We competed rather well, we made a very good game but it surely’s a pity the possibilities we had.’
Meanwhile, Gary Neville believes Arsenal must be buoyed by City’s failure to significantly extend their goal difference of their win over Burnley.
‘It’s a win for Manchester City but it surely’s the very best win Arsenal could have hoped for,’ Neville told Sky Sports.
‘It’s all to play for. Arsenal have a house game against Newcastle on Saturday where they’ll reassert their three-point lead.
‘It didn’t occur for Manchester City tonight. They are going to should play higher than that or they’ll drop points.
‘But Pep Guardiola knows he had to come back away with three points. And he’s done that.’
Elsewhere, Micah Richards believes Arsenal’s Champions League semi-final ties against Atletico Madrid may even play a think about the title race with City.
‘When you take a look at the Champions League semi-final, you’d expect Arsenal, the shape they’ve shown this season, to beat Newcastle and Fulham, it’s what the Atletico Madrid game takes out of them. I imagine they’ll beat them,’ Richards said.
‘Have they got the grit and determination to win all of those games? They’ve got the standard.
‘And I feel as if once we speak about Arsenal it’s, ‘oh, they’ve bottled it’, it’s just opened the door for Man City, it’s still of their hands, they’ll still do it, it’s what those games within the Champions League take out of them because Atletico Madrid and Diego Simeone will grind them down.’
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