Manchester City are expecting a tense battle to the wire against Liverpool for the Premier League trophy.
Pep Guardiola and his bosses had anticipated a much stiffer challenge from Jurgen Klopp's side as well as Chelsea this season after the two rivals offered little resistance last year to allow the Blues to lift their third crown in four years. And while the West London club have fallen off the pace - and have much more serious issues to contend with now following the sanctions placed upon owner Roman Abramovich - Liverpool are six points off the top with a game in hand.
A run of seven straight victories has allowed the Merseyside club to make up ground on City, who have lost to Spurs and drawn with Southampton in 2022. With Klopp's team also beating Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final recently, confidence is renewed at Anfield that they can win more trophies this season.
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That belief is shared at the Etihad, with the City squad under no illusions that Liverpool are capable of extending their winning run and pipping them to the title. However, with a home game to come against Klopp's side the Blues also know that they still have everything in their hands as they look to retain their title.
Kevin De Bruyne expects a similar situation to the first half of 2019 when the two sides duked it out until the final day of the season, and Ilkay Gundogan also predicts a high-quality end to the campaign.
"There is no potential to do mistakes for both sides and then you have the showdown at the Etihad in a few weeks," he said. "Both teams are able to win all of their remaining games as we both have shown a couple of years ago. It's going to be a tight race until the end.
"The most important thing is not to let go, to keep training well, recover good and then go again on Monday evening because we are going towards the end of the season and every game is becoming more important. Now the big games are coming and we're looking forward to them.
"We've won together a lot in recent years so that always helps. I've mentioned before that even though we were not able to win the Champions League yet the experience from last year can help us for this year.
"We are still full of motivation for every single competition and that's how we approach all of our games - to go out there to win the next game."
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