Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has sent Arsenal a strong title message ahead of their Premier League clash tonight at the Emirates Stadium.
Mikel Arteta’s side are currently three points clear of Guardiola’s at the top of the table, having also played one less match than their title rivals.
However, City boast a vastly superior goal difference, meaning a win in north London would see them return to the top of the pile for the first time since August.
Ahead of the highly-anticipated clash, Guardiola has been speaking to the media, telling Arsenal that the reigning champions won’t let their title slip easily.
“The biggest motivation is that I don’t want to drop the Premier League just because we are not who we are,” the former Barcelona boss said.
“If they beat us because they are better then this is sport, I’ll be the first to congratulate them, as I’ve always done. But not because we are not there. You want it? OK, fight. Take it. It’s in our hands.
“We’ll defend this title until the last day. This is what I’d like. To fight to the maximum to try to retain the title. If we don’t, accept it. But we need to give our best. My players have to feel that every day.
“It’s impossible to win two leagues and every day to be perfect. Arsenal has an incredible history, bigger than us in terms of titles. But not recently. They have something special that we don’t have because we won it recently.
“We have to find another trick, other ways, to find the fire as a team and individually to say that we can still do it. If we didn’t have that, we wouldn’t be second. We’d be far, far away.”