Aymeric Laporte says Manchester City’s chances of defending their Premier League crown depends on how well they can remain focused and keep consistency during the run-in.
The Blues have a Champions League quarter-final second-leg clash with Bayern Munich on Wednesday before an FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield United on Saturday. Their next Premier League match is the gigantic meeting with Arsenal on April 26.
City are still on for the treble and were given a title boost when West Ham held the Gunners to a 2-2 draw on Sunday following their own 3-1 win over Leicester on Saturday. It means a win over Arsenal coupled with three points in their game in hand would take them top of the table.
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Laporte - who started his seventh league game of the season against Leicester - says the squad is “in a good mood". But with potentially another six cup games to play in addition to their eight remaining league games, the 29-year-old said he and his teammates must remain fully attentive to the task in hand.
“I think the team is in a good mood now, winning a lot of games in a row (10),” he told club media. “We have to keep focused as we have over the last few weeks and even months. We have to focus on ourselves, that’s all.
“The title depends on what we do now, which is very important for us, and we will try to do our best. The end of the season is always the most important part of the season, so we can’t miss.
“Obviously, it’s very hard as the teams at the bottom want three points to get out of the relegation zone and we want to win this title. It’s very important for us to win, win, win as we have the three titles to win, so we will try it.”
Laporte added: “What’s impressed me the most is that we’ve been able to be in the fight every season, as we’ve seen other teams that have dropped off and come back. Consistency is very important, and we have been able to achieve that.”
A win for Arsenal in this month’s big clash would see them stretch their lead back to seven points with a game in hand. Laporte knows Gunners boss Mikel Arteta well from his time as City assistant and praised the work he is doing at the Emirates, although hopes he doesn’t spoil Pep Guardiola’s fun next month.
The Spain international continued: “Mikel Arteta who was here, he knows our style of play very well. He is a fantastic manager; I only have good words to say about him.
“What we are doing alongside Arsenal right now is fantastic. Although I hope they can slip against us and that we can get the win.
“I think there are various finals left, not only this game. It’s very important as whoever takes more points out of this game will have a bigger advantage. We’ll want to win.
“There are a lot of games ahead of us, not as many as at the start but there are a fair few left. Teams always put the pressure on towards the end of the season to get as many points as they can. We’ll concentrate on what we can do, which is play football and that will be our aim.”
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