Pep Guardiola says Manchester City will be treating Thursday’s Premier League showdown with Liverpool as a final as they look to cut the gap on the leaders.
Reigning champions City recovered from successive defeats to beat Southampton 3-1 and cut the gap to Liverpool to seven points in their last action of the year.
2019 starts explosively with a mouth-watering showdown between the two best sides in the country at the Etihad on Thursday –with City hoping to end Liverpool’s unbeaten start to the campaign.
A win would reduce the deficit to just four points and fire the champions right back into contention, and Guardiola says they’ll be treating the game almost like a final.
"The distance (at the top) is big, then they come home, and this is almost a final for us," said Guardiola.
"We want to be there as long as possible to fight for the Premier League. Our second round (of the season) is pretty good and we make a lot of points."
Guardiola was not able to confirm whether midfielder Kevin De Bruyne would be back in contention for the Liverpool game on Thursday.
"It is not a big issue, but it is normal when you come back from injury that you have a little bit of problems," he added.
Captain Kompany up for the battle
City captain Vincent Kompany hailed his team’s response, and is in no doubt that they need to give everything they have on Thursday to wrestle the title initiative back from Liverpool.
"We know if we can play to our potential we are a good team," Kompany told Sky Sports.
"We have been hit in our pride in the past couple of weeks, but we still want to kick on.
"It is all to play for, but it depends on us and this is a step in the right direction."
On the showdown with Liverpool, the Belgian added: "The same as always, we want to win. My personal feeling is it one of those key games you live for.
"Every living soul that comes into the stadium on Thursday has to be ready to fight and to take it to them and try everything to win... we should be able to pull everything out of the locker for that game."
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