Manchester City squad are refusing to panic at Arsenal's five-point lead at the top of the Premier League - but they know there is no more room for error in the second half of the season.
The dressing room mood was revealed by Bernardo Silva, who said even Liverpool and Chelsea shouldn't be ruled out of the title race despite sitting 15 and 16 points behind Arsenal respectively.
City go into a testing New Year schedule hoping to keep in touch with Mikel Arteta's Arsenal, while also trying to hold off a stubborn Newcastle side in third and their other 'Big Six' rivals in Tottenham and Manchester United.
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Assessing the teams who could still catch Arsenal, Bernardo opened up on the mindset of his City teammates as he acknowledged the pressure is on the Blues to make up the gap on first.
"Its the Premier League. You never know what can happen in this league," he told Sky Sports.
"Newcastle since the takeover have been investing very well. They're building a very good project and have done a fantastic job. Arsenal is not a surprise to me, maybe for some there is a surprise. I know very well the manager, how good he is and how well he understands the game. How much he demands from his players because he was with us and demanded the same from us.
"A very young team, very hungry, and especially very very good. Then you have players that have the winning mentality like Gabby [Jesus] or [Aleks] Zinchenko and it becomes a very dangerous side. Not surprised at all about Arsenal. We're behind them, we have to go after them. It's a difficult league, they can win it but they can also drop points. It's still very much alive, this league, and we're not in the perfect position. But we're better than most teams so we'll keep fighting."
Bernardo then discussed that concern of having five points to make up on Arteta's pace-setters, adding that City must also look over their shoulder as well as on Arsenal.
"No sense of panic but there is a concern that we're five points behind a rival," he continued. "We're not happy because we cannot make more mistakes. Arsenal they can make mistakes, because even if they drop two points they'll be in the race with us, and other teams.
"But if we drop more points maybe Newcastle will go past us, United will go past us, United will go past us, Tottenham will go past us. Arsenal will keep running and it won't be easy to go after them. No panic, but definitely motivation and a lot of focus to not let them go further away from us.
"Some teams are already quite, quite far behind Arsenal, I don't know exactly how many points Liverpool are behind Arsenal but I think it's around 15. That gap is not easy to recover, but it's possible. Then United is closer, Tottenham is closer. Chelsea is far away so it's not going to be easy for them as well.
"It's the Premier League. Two or three games if Arsenal start dropping points then we're right there with them and Liverpool are right there with us as well because they're not that far away from us. We haven't got to the health of the Premier League, so everything can still happen. Knowing that the teams who are 15 or more points behind it's quite a big gap so it's not easy for them."
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