Pep Guardiola says there is no margin for error in the Premier League title race between Arsenal and Manchester City.
The Cityzens closed the gap to the leaders to just three points on Sunday when they beat the Gunners 2-1 at home. They can go top of the table with a win over Burnley on Wednesday night.
Having won so many title races in the past, Guardiola knows that the physical challenge in the final month of the campaign is now their biggest hurdle to winning it yet again.
Guardiola: Neither Arsenal or Man City can afford to slip up
“Both teams know we cannot lose or drop points,” he said in Tuesday’s pre-match press conference. “Now it will be difficult to recover. Our calendar is so demanding. We recover for three days then have Everton after.
“It is more difficult physically than mentally. What happened after Arsenal, then to go to Burnley and perform at the level that we have to.
“We had to adjust a few things against Arsenal and go to win the game because this is what we need to do.”
Guardiola was sceptical about the narrative forming around Man City’s mentality, given Sunday’s result could have easily been different.
“The body language has been in the right place for many, many months. Every mistake the one player feels it is my mistake, so we blame few and try to move on to the next.
“I know what I am talking about because when you win these types of games, you talk about mentality. I said it after the game on Sunday, if [Kai] Havertz scored the header in the last minute when we didn’t defend the cross, what would our mentality be? What would it be?
“I know perfectly that it would be ‘they don’t have composure, they are not an experienced team’. It is the same.
“People talk about Arsenal hitting the post twice, we hit the post too. The chances they had, we had too. The game was so tight. The margins define many, many things.”
