Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has heaped praise on Arsenal when discussing the Premier League title race.
The Gunners dropped points on Tuesday evening, drawing 0-0 to Newcastle United in what turned out to be a tense affair at the Emirates Stadium. Still, Mikel Arteta 's men find themselves eight points clear of second-placed City, although the reigning champions do have a game in hand on their title rivals.
Ahead of his side's Thursday night clash against Chelsea, Guardiola has claimed that it is unlikely that the Citizens will be able to catch Arsenal if the north London outfit continue on their current trajectory. "The way you have to reduce the gap is play good and win games," the former Barcelona head coach said.
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"It's not for the fact. They have an average that they will do more than 100 points the way they have done so far.
"If they continue in that way, we will not catch them. We have to be almost perfect from here and hope they drop their performance - yesterday they were excellent against Newcastle - and see what happens."
Despite their healthy lead at the top of the pile, Arsenal will know that there is a long way to go yet and the Gunners are yet to play City this season. The two giants will do battle next month at the Emirates Stadium but Arteta and Co face a tricky run of games before then, as they take on Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United in their next two league outings.
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