Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City may need 96 points to win their fourth Premier League title in five years… insisting nine-point gap with second-place Liverpool ‘is nothing’
- Manchester City currently sit nine points clear of Liverpool at top of the table
- Liverpool can reach 96 should they win all of their remaining league matches
- Pep Guardiola is therefore demanding perfection from his City squad this term
- He believes City have been proven a great team by their response to setbacks
Pep Guardiola expects Liverpool to win every game until the end of the season as he insisted Jurgen Klopp does believe that Manchester City can be toppled in the title race.
Although the gap can be reduced to six points should they win their game in hand, Klopp claimed that his team are not in a position to put City ‘on their toes’.
A mischievous Guardiola cut through those remarks on Friday, while predicting that City may need to reach 96 points in order to lift a fourth title in five years. Liverpool can reach 96 with a perfect run of victories – including away at the Etihad Stadium on April 9.
Pep Guardiola believes Man City may need to hit 96 points to lift another Premier League title
Liverpool can reach 96 points should they win all of their remaining top-flight matches
‘I don’t believe him,’ Guardiola smirked. ‘Absolutely (it’s possible) and he thinks the same, otherwise he wouldn’t be the competitor that he is. Of course he believes.
‘In football, everything can happen. The margin with Liverpool is nothing. It’s nothing. We have to win a lot, a lot of games. More than 90 points – 95 or 96 to be champion, I’m pretty sure of that right now.
‘We’ve made an incredible run – 13 victories in 14 games – and our opponent, Liverpool, is there around the corner. That shows how difficult it is. The opponent is so good.
‘My players have shown they are not scared to face every game with optimism but knowing that we can lose and drop points.’ City are at resurgent Norwich on Saturday, with Guardiola sounding like a man who pays close attention to goings on at Anfield and a man who knows Klopp is of a similar mindset.
Guardiola is demanding perfection from his squad if they are to claim a fourth title in five years
Guardiola believes City have been proven to be a great team by their response to setbacks
The way in which Guardiola spoke felt as if City’s squad are privately being told to expect the sort of onslaught they unleashed when overhauling Liverpool’s commanding lead the last time the two clubs were truly pitted against each other in 2019.
‘Both teams have shown over the years that they can make an incredible run of victories in a row,’ Guardiola added. ‘If one team is able, they can. Both have the same managers, more or less the same squads and ideas. Both could make 16 or 17 wins in a row.
‘They can do it – we can do it too.’ And there came a warning that the tide can rapidly turn, with Guardiola using Manchester United’s fall from the elite as a case study.
City face Norwich at Carrow Road on Saturday evening, where they suffered defeat in 2019
‘A long time ago United controlled this league like no other team. Could you imagine at that time it will be many seasons without winning the Premier League? Could anyone in this country think that?
‘But it’s happened and if it happened to United it can happen to us tomorrow. Not next season, tomorrow. Football is so difficult and unpredictable because the human being is imperfect.
‘I said many times to the players: we play against us. With all respect to our opponents, we play against ourselves. I try to focus on ourselves since the day I arrived. So no excuses here, no excuses with me. If you start to complain, you are not playing in this team.’