Final Party Creates Manchester City

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. (Photo: Twitter @ManCity)

JAKARTA - Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City will now play a knockout system game in their pursuit of Arsenal hunting for the English Premier League title.

The reigning champions continued to press the leader of the standings, with a 3-1 win over Leicester, last Saturday.

City are now turning their attention to the Champions League and FA Cup in the coming week.

But the next Premier League match will be very crucial. The Citizens will have their home game against the Gunners on April 26.

"This is a 'final'. If we lose this game, it will almost end," said City manager Pep Guardiola.

"It's important to arrive at the position we talked about a month ago, hopefully we can arrive in the game against Arsenal and have a chance to get close to them."

"We want this opportunity (close to Arsenal), to know how difficult it is, but first of all we have the Champions League and FA Cup semifinals," he continued.

Before looking at the match against Arsenal, Guardiola wanted his team to focus first on the match against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, in the middle of next week.

The Citizens have an advantage in this match because they won 3-0 in the first leg. However, Guardiola believes Bayern can still turn things around.

"Of course, we know that. We have to try our game and think we will win the game," Guardiola told the BBC.

"We have to defend, otherwise they have a rhythm. It's a very tough opponent. We went there to achieve something unique, to reach the semifinals. We have to play with the right mentality, stable in bad times," he continued.