MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) – Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has warned Arsenal will be hard to catch in the Premier League title race and that 100 points may be needed for the club to win the cup again.
Arsenal, led by former Guardiola assistant Mikel Arteta, could have opened up a 10-point lead over the defending champions on Tuesday but were held to a 0-0 home draw by Newcastle United.
City, who drew at Everton on New Year’s Eve, can cut the gap to five points if they beat Chelsea on Thursday and Guardiola says his side cannot afford to make too many more slips if they want to win. the fifth title in six years.
“The way you have to close the gap is to play well and win games,” Guardiola told a news conference on Wednesday.
“(Arsenal) has an average that will score more than 100 points the way they’ve been playing so far,” he said.
“If they continue like this, we will not catch up. We have to be almost perfect from here and wait for them to reduce their performance – yesterday they were excellent against Newcastle – and look what happens.”
Arsenal, who are fighting for their first English title since 2004, are at the top with 44 points from 17 games played, while City have 36 from 16 games, two points less than the same round last season.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman)
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