Defending champions Manchester City, who won two back-to-back titles with tallies of 100 and 98 points, are currently placed 17 points behind Liverpool.
Pep Guardiola file image. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP)
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola believes that they are paying the price of their own success, having raised the bar of making the requirement of almost 100 points to win the English Premier League.
Defending champions City, who won two back-to-back titles with tallies of 100 and 98 points, are currently placed at third, 17 points behind table-toppers Liverpool.
“I didn’t want to think it too much in the beginning of the season but I thought will we be able to do it again. When we arrived here the standard was 85 points to win. Now you have to reach almost 100 points to win the Premier League,” Guardiola was quoted as saying by AFP in his pre-match conference before the match against Arsenal.
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In last season, the Blues of Manchester denied Liverpool the title after winning the last 14 league matches in a row to retain the Premier League first time in a decade. However, four defeats in their last 12 games this season have helped the Reds take a massive lead in the title-winning race.
However, Guardiola insists that it is normal to have a drop of standard after going through an extensive run of success. He said, “Eleven years no one won back-to-back and then we did it, by winning 14 games in a row.”
“That is why when people say we are not good, I cannot forget what this team has done, but sometimes it is a process. “I would say that is normal, that the people can expect it. That is going to help us, the situation we are in is going to help us in the future,” he added.
City face Arsenal in an away encounter at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
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