Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said his side will be ready to pounce if Premier League leaders Chelsea falter following their impressive 2-1 comeback victory over title rivals Arsenal.
Chelsea have streaked clear at the summit thanks to a run of 11 consecutive victories.
City trail Antonio Conte’s side by seven points, having climbed to second place by coming from behind to beat Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
“Seven points is a huge distance and when a team can make 11 victories in a row, you just can say congratulations,” Guardiola said.
“But at least to be there as much as possible, and waiting if the opponent fails sometimes, and waiting until the last part of the season to be there, to fight for the title.”
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Since Guardiola’s arrival in England, following stellar stints at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, there has been huge interest in whether his passing principles will prevail in the pell-mell Premier League.
The City manager triggered his team’s comeback by moving Kevin De Bruyne up front at half-time and switching Sterling to the right flank, but he played down the significance of the decision.
“Because we won, now the trainer is a genius!” said Guardiola, who faced criticism following recent one-sided losses to Chelsea and Leicester City.
German winger Leroy Sane cancelled out Theo Walcott’s fifth-minute opener two minutes into the second half, bursting onto David Silva’s lofted pass to slot his first City goal past Petr Cech.
He was given the benefit of the doubt in a tight offside call and Arsenal were aggrieved that Silva also got away with swishing a foot at Sterling’s decisive 71st-minute shot as it flew past Cech.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said his side had fallen to “two offside goals” and suggested match officials were unfairly protected from criticism, likening them to “lions in the zoo”.
He had previously been critical of the referee following Arsenal's 2-1 loss at Everton last Tuesday, arguing the winning goal had stemmed from an incorrectly awarded corner.
The successive defeats leave Arsenal nine points below Chelsea and Wenger said his team would need to tighten up defensively before they could even think about chasing down the pace-setters.
“We have to come back next week and win our game (at home to West Bromwich Albion),” he said.
“We had a horrible week, absolutely horrible, and what is worse, out of two good performances we get zero points and out of two leading positions, we lost two games. That of course is very disappointing.
“Before we think about the nine points, we have to come back to be realistic. For a while we have not kept a clean sheet (eight league games).
“If you want to play at the top, you have to keep clean sheets.”
* Agence France-Presse
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